By
Morkporkpor Anku, GNA
Accra, Aug. 17, GNA – The Food and Agriculture
Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations will introduce four digital
applications at the Youth Employment in Agriculture conference to be held in
Kigali, Rwanda on Monday, August 20 and Tuesday, August 21.
The applications are aimed to help farmers
improve their household nutrition, food production, income and livelihoods.
The digital applications are, “Cure and Feed
your livestock”, “e-Nutrifood”, “Weather and Crop Calendar” and
“AgriMarketplace”.
Mr Bukar Tijani, FAO Assistant
Director-General and Regional Representative for Africa, briefing the media
ahead of the conference said FAO was seeking innovative business models and new
technologies to unlock the largely untapped reservoir of youth employment.
The conference aims to foster an exchange
among stakeholders on knowledge and best practices regarding the interfaces
between agriculture, youth employment, entrepreneurship, ICT innovations,
leading to prioritising interventions going forward.
The two-day event is on the theme “Youth
Employment in Agriculture as a Solid Solution to ending Hunger and Poverty in Africa:
Engaging through Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and
Entrepreneurship”
It will also deliberate on Youth and
entrepreneurship, Digital innovation to overcome agriculture value-chain
related constraints and Future of Agriculture Work.
He said the Agricultural services and digital
inclusion in Africa project was piloted in two African countries: Rwanda and
Senegal.
He said these four digital applications for
smallholder farmers have been developed and tested with the farmers.
He said with the “Cure and Feed your
livestock” application; it an application that provide real time information on
animal diseases control and animal feeding strategies and “e-Nutrifood”;
combines information on production, conservation and consumption of nutritious
foods.
The FAO Assistant Director-General and
Regional Representative for Africa said the “Weather and Crop calendar”
application also combines information on weather forecasts, crop calendars and
alert systems, while “AgriMarketplace” application, connects producers, traders
and consumers to facilitate trade and access to inputs.
He said agriculture had an extremely valuable
and untapped potential to solve the youth unemployment challenges on the
African continent.
He said the youth were the key partners and
powerful catalysts of change in combined efforts to promote more and better
employment and entrepreneurship opportunities for the young people in
agriculture in Africa.
He said there was a potential for the
agriculture sector to create employment, however, African youths in Sub-Saharan
Africa do not realise the sector as a profitable opportunity for livelihood.
On areas of Migration, Mr Tijani said to curb
youth migration investing more in agriculture and rural development was key to
making migration a voluntary choice.
He said FAO through policy assistance and
awareness-raising in youth entrepreneurship, seeks to develop a strong enabling
environment in which young people could thrive and seize current and future
decent rural employment opportunities.
It also seeks to develop innovative and
field-tested approaches that address the constraints rural youth face in
accessing decent work and support government in the design and implementation
of strategies that more effectively target rural youth.
“FAO also work with government to integrate
youth issues into national agricultural investment plans,” he added.
The conference is expected to bring together
more than 500 delegates, mostly young people from across Africa to discuss ways
to boost employment opportunities in agriculture on the continent through the
use of information and communication technologies and entrepreneurship.
The agenda will focus on sustainable solutions
for decent youth employment in agriculture in Africa such as minimising
drudgery while harnessing opportunities in agribusiness entrepreneurship and
innovation to enhance productivity and competitiveness.
GNA