Monday, 5 October 2015
Sunday, 4 October 2015
Rural youth are world's largest untapped resource – IFAD President
Rural youth are world's largest untapped resource – IFAD President
Kanayo F. Nwanze, President of IFAD, speaks during an event on "Mobilizing Generation Zero Hunger". IFAD co-hosted the event with the Permanent Mission of Ireland, the Office of the Envoy of the Secretary-General on Youth, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP).
The President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) is calling on developing countries to harness the potential of rural youth to help end hunger, achieve food security and improve nutrition – one of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) recently adopted by world leaders.
The call came at a high-level side event entitled Mobilizing Generation Zero Hunger, held on the margins of the Sustainable Development Summit at UN Headquarters on Friday.
"70 per cent of the African population is below the age of 30 and more than half, close to 200 million, live in rural areas," said Kanayo F. Nwanze, President of IFAD.
Nwanze spoke to a packed gathering in New York of youth leaders from around the world, as well as prominent political, business and civil society figures.
"Rural youth are the leaders of tomorrow. They are the farmers of tomorrow, the businesses and the entrepreneurs."
IFAD co-hosted the event alongside the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Food Programme (WFP) and the Government of Ireland.
The event brought together young entrepreneurs and activists from around the world, along with global leaders, policy makers and celebrities to discuss how mobilizing this generation to champion sustainable agriculture, food security and nutrition can help make zero hunger and sustainable development a reality.
Hunger still impacting millions
Despite development gains in recent years, around 800 million people still go to bed hungry every night. One billion people survive on less than $1.25 a day, and more than 70 per cent of them live in rural areas and mainly depend on agriculture.
Young people attend the Apprentices Training Programme at the Ghana National Tailors and Dressmakers Association, Sefwi Bekwai Branch. Approximately 87 per cent of the world's 1.2 billion youth live in developing countries. ©IFAD/Nana Kofi Acquah
Approximately 87 per cent of the world's 1.2 billion youth live in developing countries. The majority of youth live in rural areas in sub-Saharan Africa, and in South-Central and South-East Asia.
Rural poverty is one of the main drivers of youth migration – as youth move into urban areas searching for work.
Nwanze told the crowd that rural youth aged 10 to 24 constitute massive untapped human potential in most of the developing world.
He stressed that each country should take responsibility for maximizing the potential of its rural youth and provide them with opportunities to be able to achieve the goal of zero hunger by 2030.
“People develop themselves. Development doesn’t come to you. If you don’t take responsibility for yourself and expect someone else to develop you, then zero hunger will remain a dream,” Nwanze said.
The event was opened by the President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins, and other speakers included FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva and WFP Executive Director Ertharin Cousin.
In an emotional address, Nobel Prize nominee Victor Ochen recounted surviving seven years of childhood with only one meal a day.
He knew about hunger from experience, he told the gathering, which also featured Brazilian footballer and WFP Ambassador against Hunger, Kaká.
"I saw with my eyes what it means to stay in a community, in a family, whereby at 3 pm your parents couldn’t afford food so you can eat," said Ochen.
"Sometimes we had to go without food, and this is the hunger I am talking about. I am not speaking of hunger that I studied. I did not research [hunger], but I lived it, I survived it, and I can talk about it."
Africa's agriculture needs young blood, says report By Mark Kinver
Getty Images
Modernising Africa's agriculture sector to attract young people will help tackle youth unemployment and food insecurity, a report has suggested.
The findings were outlined in the 2015 African Agriculture Status Report.
Despite the dominance of agriculture in many economies, outdated land-tenure systems and poor access to finance deter new entrants to farming, it said.
The call for action was presented at the African Green Revolution Forum, which is being held in Zambia.
The report, produced by the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (Agra), warns that the continent will not solve its chronic food shortages or worrying unemployment levels among its youth without wholesale changes.
In 2015, the African Union issued a declaration to double food productivity and halve poverty by 2025.
Harvesting youth
The report's co-ordinating editor, Agra's head of strategy, monitoring and evaluation, David Sarfo Ameyaw, said the report highlighted a direct link between the rising level of unemployment among the under-25s and food security concerns.
But, he added, the two issues also presented a clear opportunity to deliver a solution.
Getty Images
"Channeling the energy, strength and dynamism of Africa's youth into productive, competitive and profitable agribusinesses... will boost agricultural production systems, create jobs and generate incomes," he said.
"The impact of youth involvement and participation in agriculture and food systems will be seen in sustainable economic growth and in the reduction of poverty and malnutrition across the continent."
He told BBC News that studies had shown that a 1% increase in GDP from the agriculture sector reduces poverty five times as much as any other sector.
However, there were a number of long-standing barriers that prevented or deterred future generations of would-be agribusiness leaders.
One was the lack of access to land. "Africa has the highest area of arable land in the world but because of the limitation of our land-tenure systems and land policies, it is very difficult for the youth to access land," Dr Sarfo Ameyaw explained.
"Africa, unlike other countries, does not have a viable land market. They are either traditionally or culturally owned."
Another constraint was accessing finance facilities.
He observed: "The report points out that only about 25% of the young people in Africa have any form of access to finance, even things such as a bank account or credit card."
He said that even if a young person identified some land, it was hard to find the finances to buy the land and made it very hard to get a foot on to the agriculture ladder.
Figures from the African Union Commission estimate that about 65% of Africa's population is below the age of 35 years, with 10 million youths (15-35 year-olds) entering the workforce each year.
It is also estimated that agriculture provides 65% of the continent's jobs. And as the world wakes up to the challenge it faces to feed a growing population that is forecast to exceed nine billion by the middle of this century, Africa holds up to 60% of the world's uncultivated arable land.
Dr Sarfo Ameyaw said, along with reforms to the barriers and constraints identified by the report, there was also a need to "rebrand" the image of farming and the opportunities for employment the sector offered.
"When you talk about agriculture in Africa, everyone is talking about the production aspect, being on the land," he explained.
"But agriculture is about R&D, improved distribution, access to markets, improved technology, processing, retailing.
"So when we talk about agriculture to the youth, we should rebrand it so that it focuses not only on the production side but along the whole chain."
Source: http://www.bbc.com/
Terra Madre Youth – #WeFeedthePlanet - Day 1: Making connections
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| Immortalizing departure for "Terra Madre Youth" Photo credit: R. Samii |
On Friday 2 October, 40 young enthusiastic and passionate IFAD colleagues left for “Terra Madre Youth”. They are reporting live so that all of us can follow their extraordinary experience .
We are proud to be IFAD young delegates, even if our badge just says “participant”. We are bringing our voices to Milan, to “Terra Madre Youth” which is taking place in Milan from 3-6 October. The event, organised by Slow Food and Slow Food Youth Network with the support of IFAD, has brought together 2000 young people from all over the world who are engaged and work in food production industry so that together we can find innovative solutions to address global hunger.
Our mantra - “We feed the planet” - is omnipresent. You see it everywhere... It is prominently displayed in the “Superstudio Più” and “Mercato Metropolitano” - the venue for seminars, workshops, public events and shows. We are trying to make the most of all of this, with passion, enthusiasm and the awareness of being part of a present that works for and needs to shape the future.
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| Getting up close and personal Photo credit: Andrea Listanti |
The first day focused on making connections and meeting people. Everyone was encouraged to connect with other fellow participants and start sharing ideas about sustainable models for future food production systems. IFAD’s fellows, many of whom are interns, had the opportunity to meet young farmers and food producers — our companions - who have benefitted from IFAD-funded projects and programmes in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
To get things going and to break the ice, Joris Lohman, representative of Slow Food Youth Network and member of the Executive Committee of Slow Food International, reminded us that we had all gathered at “ Terra Madre Youth” to “find a new vision and new projects to feed the world”.
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| We made it..... Registered IFAD delegates Photo credit: Andrea Listanti |
During the Europe Meeting in the Red Room (the main hall of Superstudio Più), a fellow participant from Australia stood up and asked him what can we practically do to achieve this while we are here. Considering that all of us can and are reporters, a good starting point is to share our thoughts and listen to those of others. “As reporters you are collecting bits and pieces from everyone’s experiences to make a story”, Lohman reminded us. This is what we will be doing on a daily basis!
We took advantage of a break to have a look around. There are people from all over the world, different cultures and traditions, indigenous peoples, farmers and more. Some of them are dressed in their traditional costumes. Their colourful outfits beat Milan’s grey weather and give us a sense of relief and excitement.
Food is perhaps one of the best connectors in the world and has the power to bring people together not only in Italy, but globally. So, at lunch, which was rigorously vegetarian, we had an opportunity to get up close and personal with our companions and “twins”.
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| "We Feed the Planet" Photo credit: Andrea Listanti |
We met Gladys, a 26 year old young lady from Tanzania; Solomon from Ghana and Lywa from Senegal. Gladys has beautiful braids and as we engaged in conversation, we shared with her that we’ve heard Tanzania is an enchanting place, she indulged with a smile and confirmed.
As Italians we consider Parmigiano cheese as one of the most nutrients foods. But to our biggest surprise and chagrin, we discovered that parmigiano was not as appreciated as we would have expected. Many of our companions did not eat it, even though it was perhaps the most nourishing part of our meal.
We got our share of consolation when we saw Solomon and Lywa appreciating Italian coffee! We took a selfie together. “Post it and tag me on Facebook”, they told me. To which I replied, “Will do, don’t worry”.
Solomon, a member of the IFAD-funded Global Youth Innovation Network (GYIN) knows a lot about IFAD-funded activities s in Ghana. “IFAD-funded activities are well designed, the challenge is to engage directly with the beneficiaries, especially young people. A good example is Ghana Agriculture Sector Investment Programme (GASIP), which has a full component on rural young people”, Solomon told us.
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| Let's get the show on the road Photo credit: Andrea Listanti |
In the afternoon the 'stars' went on stage. The first to speak was Raj Patel. He talked about how the quest to make profits in the food production system has had devastating impact on the environment. “We live in the era of cheap food. Since 1990 food is becoming cheaper, and this food is the industrial food. Food industries make large profits out of it and this has an adverse impact on rural people”.
He continued to tell us that the production of cheap food means exploiting the environment. Patel’s crie de coeur was: “There is no way industrial food can be sustainable. We need to change the global food production system, and in order to do that we need to confront capitalism. We are powerful when we address the powerful”.
After Patel, Carlo Petrini, the Slow Food founder, took the stage. Carlo is an inspiring and passionate speaker . He walked on stage and said : “when I entered this hall and saw all of you, I had the extraordinary feeling that our ideas, our projects and our future is in good hands.”
Carlo’s message to us was while Expo is coming to an end, Milan finally is experiencing engagement. If we join forces, we can bring about change and advocate for an alternative and better food culture.
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| Our vegetarian lunch Photo credit: Andrea Listanti |
Carlo challenged us and told us: “Our food production system does not work because industrial production asks more than our Mother Land can give. Many people are exploited in order to produce more, and the only people who suffer from the ‘free-market food system’ are smallholder farmers, whose rural communities can no longer sustain themselves. Using the network you care building, YOU must change this productive system”.
The first day ended at “Mercato Metropolitan” with the Disco Soup, a dancing dinner with leftovers of vegetables that would have been wasted otherwise. Music finished what food had started. As the night came to an end, we took stock of the connections made on our first day. And tomorrow we are looking for more inspirations and new connections so that we can start bringing about change.
Credit: http://ifad-un.blogspot.com.ng
Credit: http://ifad-un.blogspot.com.ng
Saturday, 3 October 2015
VC investor: Forget the middle class, Africa’s opportunity lies in low-income demand by Kate Douglas
Maurizio Caio (left) and Omobola Johnson (right) talk about TLcom’s VC fund for tech companies in sub-Saharan Africa during a round table discussion in Cape Town.
London-based venture capital firm TLcom Capital is expanding its presence on the continent with the opening of it Lagos office. The firm, initially focused on backing telecom, media and technology ventures in Europe and Israel, has turned its attention to sub-Saharan Africa in recent years.
TLcom opened its Nairobi office in 2013 and has recently appointed Omobola Johnson, Nigeria’s former minister of communication technology, to head up the Lagos office. Johnson has previous private sector experience as the managing director of Accenture in Nigeria.
Maurizio Caio, TLcom’s founder and managing partner, first recognised the continent’s opportunity a few years ago when he saw how well some European companies with an African focus were doing.
He believes there is a considerable opportunity for African tech companies to leverage existing technology to solve problems and meet basic needs, such as access to electricity, health, education and commerce.
“Despite the hype around the middle class, the vast majority of big, rising demand on the continent is coming from low-income segments,” he said at a media round table in Cape Town yesterday.
“There’s gigantic demand for vast underserved verticals. And there’s very affordable technology – that is mobile and internet – which is actually much more penetrative [in providing] the services and products that people really need. That’s the opportunity.”
Capital gap
A major limitation facing tech companies and entrepreneurs is the shortage of capital available in the market, highlighted Caio. “And we believe one of the main reasons why capital is not flowing into Africa venture capital is because there is this perception of the Africa risk.”
He added this misconception is aligned with the “myth” that venture capitalists cannot achieve profitable exits from their investments in African companies.
“If you have a good company, you can exit,” he continued. “It is a not an exit problem – it is a quality of company problem.”
One reason for a shortage of quality investment-ready companies is the lack of enabling ecosystems for tech entrepreneurs. And Caio said TLcom is placing a strong emphasis on mentorship to help strengthen the quality of the businesses the fund invests in.
Returns, not charity
“We have collected hundreds of potential companies, and we are confident that for every 100 companies, there is one that is worth investing – which is the standard healthy relationship.”
According to Caio, the firm is prioritising companies with the highest potential to deliver strong returns. TLcom’s investments will be between US$500,000 and $10m.
“For this cycle we need to be very merciless in focusing on the highest potential entrepreneurs – to make a point and to demonstrate that high returns are possible.”
“We are not in the charity business here. We are in the venture capital [business], enabling companies to actually be profitable, create jobs, and certainly accelerate inclusion.”
DRC tries mega-farms to reduce food imports by Nick Long
Workers examine new machinery in use at the pioneering mega-farm at Boukanga Lonzo park in Democratic Republic of Congo, Aug 8, 2015. (N. Long / VOA)
The Democratic Republic of Congo is trying out a large-scale agricultural plan that is, to say the least, ambitious. The government plans to develop one mega-farm of 50,000 to 150,000 hectares per province – producing food for local consumption and also export crops. The government says the aim is to promote food security.
The park at Boukanga Lonzo currently has 5,000 hectares under cultivation. The site is on a plateau, and crops already stretch as far as the eye can see.
Isaac Saleh, who works as an economist at the prime minister’s office, says they are harvesting about 3,300 hectares of that land.
Most of the production at these mega-farms will be mechanised, but there will be some 7,000 jobs created on the farm in the near future, according to the government.
On 1,000 hectares, the employees will be working full-time to cultivate and harvest vegetables irrigated by sprinklers rotating on 20 huge pivots.
“Each pivot is the length of a football pitch [field],” said Saleh, “and it’s big enough that vegetables under the pivot can be planted and harvested every day.”
The DRC government says the food is intended for Kinshasa, and should help to cut down on the US$1.5bn the DRC pays each year for food imports.
Under these plans, Boukanga Lonzo also will be a new town, with processing industries and many other jobs. The government says it already has spent $100m on infrastructure for the park and the town, mainly on a power grid, a water-pumping station and productive machinery.
John Ulimwengu, the prime minister’s chief agricultural adviser, told VOA the agro-industrial park model will be replicated in other provinces.
Currently the government is the majority shareholder at Boukanga Lonzo, and it is leasing land to investors for 25 years.
Ulimwengu explained why the government is concentrating so many resources on specific farms.
“You cannot do agriculture everywhere in a country. So we felt it was much easier to develop a site [that’s] investment ready, instead of a country [that’s] investment ready, because on a specific site the government can create the environment that is required to attract investors,” said Ulimwengu.
An agronomist at a development centre near Boukanga Lonzo, Clement Mbekia, is critical of that approach.
“The $100m is a colossal amount that could have been spent on local communities,” said Mbekia, “and that would have served the population. If the investment they have made in agro-industrial parks had been spent on small-scale family farmers you would be seeing more high-quality staple foods in the market.”.
But Ulimwengu argues that’s not realistic. “Let’s be honest, if 80% or so of your population is involved in agriculture, and they cannot feed 30% of your population, it means it’s not done in an efficient way, so there are a lot of them that should be doing something else,” he said.
Beyond having up to 11 mega-farms, the government also plans to have smaller agricultural development centres of 200 to 300 hectares across the country. – VOA
Can tractor sharing boost the incomes of small-scale farmers? by Dinfin Mulupi
With its Smart Tractor, the Hello Tractor platform gives small landowners access to affordable farm machine services to increase their productivity.
Nigeria is a net importer of food despite having more than 80 million hectares of arable land, vast amounts of water and a big labour force. Back in the 1960s, it was self-sufficient in food production but the oil boom of the 1970s led to the neglect of the agricultural industry.
Recently, there have been efforts to revive agriculture, some of which are paying off. But reports show Nigeria still spends billions of dollars annually on wheat, rice and sugar imports.
Nigeria’s low agricultural production is linked to many factors, including its land tenure system, under-cultivation, poor infrastructure and low farm mechanisation. This has led to widespread poverty, with more than half of the rural population living below the poverty line because of low farm output and poor access to markets.
Agricultural technology company Hello Tractor hopes to address some of these challenges through its tractor sharing platform.
Tractor sharing
Hello Tractor has developed low-cost ‘Smart Tractors’ fitted with a GPS antenna that tracks usage and location, thereby enabling its owners to share with nearby farmers. The ‘Smart Tractor’ has three wheels and less horsepower compared to the traditional big machines.
“What we are offering the market is a sustainable way to access a tractor,” says Hello Tractor co-founder and CEO Jehiel Oliver.
When small-scale farmers want to make use of a tractor, they send an SMS to Hello Tractor and pre-pay using mobile money. Hello Tractor then forwards the texts to nearby Smart Tractor owners, who then lease out a tractor to the farmer. Once the work has been completed, the payment is automatically released to the Smart Tractor owner.
“The core idea is that through shared usage of tractors the cost per use can go down enough to make it economically viable for the smallholder farmer, but commercially sustainable for the [tractor owner],” explains Oliver.
Rapid urbanisation and better pay in other sectors are eroding access to manual labour needed on the farms. Therefore farmers either plant late or plant just a portion of their fields. Currently only 40% of Nigeria’s 84 million hectares of arable land is cultivated.
“There simply isn’t enough manpower to work the land so it goes uncultivated. Easier and cost-effective access to tractors will enable farmers to increase their productivity and income. [The Smart Tractor] is cheaper and faster than manual labour which benefits the farmers, allows them to plant on time and optimise their yield,” he says.
The Smart Tractors are manufactured in China and sell for US$3,500. They come with various attachments for ploughing, irrigation, fertiliser distribution, transport and a thresher for processing.
“It really serves the farmers throughout the production cycle and beyond. The tiller is the most economically attractive attachment in terms of income generation. But the trailer attachment can be used all year round for hauling in rural communities, which is hugely beneficial due to the poor infrastructure,” Oliver explains.
Growing the business
Hello Tractor has raised about $250,000 from investors and will be closing another investment round in coming weeks. The company has piloted its service and done demos across Nigeria and Ghana, letting farmers interact with the Smart Tractor. It has received purchase orders from individuals and state governments that will be delivered by the next planting season.
“It’s an exciting sales pipeline,” says Oliver. “But what is really important is the customer experience of the farmer texting for tractor services and the Smart Tractor owner who is receiving those texts. I think the sales volumes will go up when we have a service that people enjoy.”
Despite a “huge amount of demand” for the Smart Tractor, affordable financing is challenging since banks charge interest rates of 30%-plus.
Although many other African countries could use Hello Tractor’s services, Oliver says he settled for Nigeria because of its shortage of tractors and its sheer size.
“It is a huge market for what we do and the opportunity is completely untapped. I thought Nigeria would be a great market for us to start and eventually scale to other countries.
“We just launched in Ghana, [and] my hope is to be in Kenya before the end of the year.”
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