The future of African agriculture: opportunities of digitalization to meet African youth challenges in the agri-food sector

During this year’s World Food Day, foodFIRST and the United Community of African Students (UCAS) of Wageningen University and Research (WUR) are joining forces to organize a World Food Day youth event in collaboration with the Netherlands Food Partnership (NFP). This event is organized by young people, catered to young people and about young people. The subject will be the digitalization of agriculture to accelerate the development of the African continent. The digitalization of agriculture has been defined as the use of digital technologies, innovations, and data to transform business models and agricultural practices across the agri-food value chain and address bottlenecks, so as to achieve greater income for smallholder farmers, improve food and nutrition security, build climate resilience and expand inclusion of youth and women. Digitization is needed to not only modernize farming but also to make the sector more appealing to the youth. This subject lies close to the youth since they are ‘digital natives’. By coupling this digital savviness with rural opportunities, it can transform agriculture and offer fruitful employment opportunities for the youth, not just in food production but across the entire agri-food value chain. This event highlights ownership and inclusiveness and together we want to discuss the future of Africa with experts and the African youth.

Objectives:

1. This event intends to bring together experts and those involved in related affairs to share and demonstrate inspiring and sustainable ideas for inclusive economic and agricultural development of the African continent specifically regarding the digital transformation of agriculture.
2. Enabling and leveraging meaningful youth engagement. Through youth engagement, we want to recognize young people’s worth to participate in discussions and decision-making that impact them and acknowledge the great skills and strengths young people bring to the table.
3. Connecting the (African) youth with experts and people in the field.
4. Discussing matters concerning Africa’s development with UCAS students and enhancing the relationship between Africa, WUR and the international community.
5. Creating an outcome document for governments and developing partners in the region to recognize the need for further engagement with the youth as active participants of their development and as agents for agricultural transformation. This includes among others the involvement of the youth in digitization processes.

Please join our Event on the 16th of October from 14h-17h via Microsoft Teams

The event is intended for WUR students, staff and to the wider public who are interested in the development of the African continent. We highly encourage other young people who are interested in or work towards developing the African continent to join the event. If you want to register please send an e-mail to socires@socires.nl