Initiatives to draw young people to agriculture are increasingly urgent as stakeholders in the sector call for more investments to increase productivity and reduce Kenya’s dependence on food imports.
Chikondi Chabvuta, Chairperson of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), is calling on both government and the private sector to significantly increase the financing of Kenya’s agri-food systems.
She says that youth empowerment through farming is the only way to transform the sector and achieve long-term food security. Acvoding to Chabvuta, some of the challenges facing Kenya’s agriculture sector are high input costs, reduction in farm sizes, and reliance on rain-fed farming.
These factors have greatly limited production, thus the country has had to depend heavily on food imports to satisfy the local demand. Furthermore, stakeholders say the emphasis is being placed on making agriculture more attractive, profitable, and sustainable for young people.
Incorporation of innovation, technology, and market access, the sector can provide employment and income to youth.
During a three-day workshop that brought together non-state actors from the entire agricultural value chain, speakers focused on market linkages for farmers.
