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Policies as key drivers in Engaging
Youth in the Agricultural Value Chain
By Obert Mathivha, CAYC MD
5th September 2012, Dar es Salam, Tanzania
“Africa is the only continent which does
not grow enough food to feed itself”. Kofi
Anan, 14 October, 2010
“For Africa to achieve food security, youths must
be regarded as critical agricultural players who
need & deserve special attention, support & followup”, Dr. Lindiwe Sibanda, FANRPAN CEO, 2011.
1. OVERVIEW OF AGRICULTURAL SECTOR IN RSA
• Economic contribution – R66billion industry.
• Primary agriculture contributes about 2.3% to GDP, down from 15% in
the 1950s & about 7% to formal employment.
• With its linkages into agro-industrial sector - contribute about 12% of
GDP. The contribution of primary agriculture to formal employment is
about 5%. However, agriculture has strong backward and forward
linkages into the economy.
• The agro‐industrial sector has a higher contribution of about 12% to
GDP.
OVERVIEW OF AGRICULTURAL SECTOR CONTINUE...
•
Dual agricultural economy – Commercialised
& Subsistence. Vision of DAFF is to create an
inclusive & prosperous agric sector through
agrarian reform i.e. Land & Agrarian Policy
• Distribution of agricultural production
– RSA has 2.76 million hectares of cultivated land,
– The main agricultural activities are crop
production, mixed farming, cattle ranching and
sheep farming, dairy farming, game ranching,
aquaculture, beekeeping, and winemaking (GCIS,
2010). about 4 million are engaged in agriculture for “own
consumption” purposes.
– Employment - Employment in agriculture has experienced
long-term decline due to a number of factors (decrease in
number of commercial farming operations i.e. average age of a
farmer is 62 years, younger generation less interested in
farming, market deregulation.
2. YOUTH DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE
• About 50 % of the total population is below the age of 25 (20.3 % is below the
age of 10).
• This equates to around 10 million children, of which almost 75 % live in the
Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo.
• Unemployment sits at 25%
• Age – 18-35 yrs - not a homogenous group e.g. School going youth, Out-ofschool youth, Unemployed youth, Rural & Urban etc.
3. POLICY AS DRIVERS FOR YOUTH ENGAGEMENT & DEV
INTERNATIONAL
• UN’s MDG to halve poverty by 2015 – FAO, ILO, IFAD
provides a framework on best practices in terms of
policy, strategy & programmes
• UN World Programme of Action for Youth (UN WPAY)
which emphasizes “full and effective participation in
decision-making of youth in communities and society is
one of the priority areas of the programme”.
• G8 (L Aquilla 2009 & Camp David 2012) through
developmental agencies such as USAID & EU provide
tools to support inclusive & evidence based policy
harmonization, capacity building, implementation,
monitoring & evaluations e.g. this Dialogue, CAADP
Multi-Donor Trust Fund, Alliance for Green Revolution in
Africa etc.
POLICY AS DRIVERS FOR YOUTH ENGAGEMENT & DEV Continue…
CONTINENTAL
•
NEPAD-CAADP Provides a policy framework
•
8TH PARTNERSHIP PLATFORM – NAIROBI – reviewing progress &
sharing experiences and lessons emerging from country and regional
level implementation of CAADP processes – What about Youth
involvement as custodians of the future? What does reviewed
data says?
•
AYC & its African Youth Decade 2009-2018 – provide a framework
for mainstreaming youth dev in line with NEPAD objectives –
Article 11 & 19 respectively.
•
African Consensus and Position on Development Effectiveness
(2011) - Guiding development partners to support the implementation
of existing Continental sector policy frameworks developed on
consensual basis and adopted by the African Union
Policy as key drivers Continue…
NATIONAL LEVEL
• In the first decade of the post apartheid period, three prominent
initiatives to attract youth into the agricultural value chain were
introduced: the Agriculture Youth Development Initiative for
SA (1998), YARD 2008) & Land Affairs YES of 2008. None of
these initiatives managed to get institutionalized and therefore
are not operational. Even the broadly acclaimed BEE policy
lacks a provision for engaging the youth in agriculture but youth
are represented in the BEE Council. Service Delivery Forum
& CEO Forums remain platforms for Lobby & Advocacy.
• What is positive though is that the NYDA, National Policy &
IYDS provides for a paradigm shift – Integrated Youth Dev
Approach, with Youth Agency assuming a responsibility of
being the custodians of youth mainstreaming & development in
all sectors.
Policy as key drivers Continue…
NATIONAL LEVEL
•
SA Youth Development Policy regime is new, with NYDA Act 54 of
1994, National Youth Policy 2009-2014, IYDS 2011.
•
Data Review in SA as in other Six participating Countries shows that
although all have national agricultural and youth policies and
programmes, these do not directly translate into coordinated efforts to
mainstream (institutionalize) youth development in agric value chain in
line with AYC, CAADP & in SA context, the National Youth Policy
2009-2014.
•
Although various policies & their strategies could be linked to
development of youth, implementation efforts are undermined as some
of these actions seem to be top-bottom ad hoc arrangements, lack the
necessary political will coupled with passive citizenry, integrated
approach & institutionalization needed to make them traceable in a
systematic & orderly fashion.
CONCLUSION
• While there may be no specific
policy on Youth and Agriculture,
there is need incentives to be
provided in order to encourage
new entrepreneurs to start up an
agribusiness. It is clear that there
is a serious need to attract and
involve youths in Agriculture
Recommendations
• The findings can be used as lobby and advocacy tool to
initiate a process culminating into national agricultural
youth summit that will pave a way for a more detailed and
aligned Youth Empowerment Strategic Plan with clear
objectives, illustrated areas of interventions, defined strategic
tools, roles and responsibilities, timeframe, budgetary
estimates & so forth.
• A continent-wide AgriYouth Campaign as suggested in the 8th
CAADP PP & appears in its Communiqué to take up
Recommendations of this Review Report
I THANK YOU