Stakeholders in Nigeria’s agricultural sector want active youth participation

Stakeholders in Nigeria’s agricultural sector have disclosed plans to address all the bottlenecks hindering active youth participation in agriculture.

The Deputy Director-General, Corporate Services, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ms. Hilde Koper, and the Country Head, Nigeria, Mastercard Foundation, Chidinma Lawanson, stated this at the agribusiness investors network, organized by the Innovative Youth in Agriculture (I-Youth).

The IITA official noted that the institute would continue to make innovations and technologies available to farmers to improve productivity and attract the youths.

Koper explained that for the last 10 years, the IITA had been putting a lot of efforts into trying to attract the youths back to agriculture.

“We have also put a lot of efforts in attracting youths back into agriculture.

“We want to commend the Mastercard Foundation for the role they played by funding a project for young Nigerians to get access to agribusiness training.

“As a research institute, we cannot do the scaling all by ourselves. We need the private sectors and other actors to come in and that is why we are here.

“Young agripreneurs have the training, knowledge, skills, drive and energy, but often do not have the necessary funding to start agribusinesses.

“Young people can do a lot, but they need help in investing in their ideas and setting up agribusinesses.

“…Investing in agriculture in these proven times is crucial.

“It is important to understand the impact of food imports on the African economy, climate change and welfare,” said Koper.

Also, Koper pointed out that Covid 19 and the current Russia-Ukraine conflict have shown the importance of having the agricultural sector locally developed and the disadvantage of relying on food imports.

“IITA sees young agripreneurs as the future for agriculture development in Nigeria,” she added.

Source: Agro Nigeria