Investing in Youth in Agriculture will mitigate the impact of climate change
Mr David Kofi Awusi, Executive Director of Youth Rise International, a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), has called on African Governments to invest in youth agriculture to help mitigate the effects of climate change on food security.
He made the call in a press release copied Ghana News Agency (GNA), at Winneba in commemoration of this year’s International Youth Day, under the theme: “Transforming Food Systems: Youth Innovation for Human and Planetary Health”.
The release indicated, that Governments of Africa should harness the combined powers of the huge youth population and abundant uncultivated arable land, and roll out national Youth in Agriculture Programmes that focused on re-directing their time and energies into commercial agriculture using modern irrigation systems.
This will go a long way to make agriculture more attractive to the youth, particularly those in the rural areas to earn a living and help curb youth unemployment.
“We have observed with worry some youth uprising and demonstrations across major cities in Africa and of which many things contribute to such actions, however, monitoring their communique, top of their concerns borders on high food prices, high cost of living and rising youth unemployment”, he noted.
He added, that it has been discovered that Globally, there was empirical evidence of a correlation between rising food prices and high cost of living and climate change and its impact on food security.
Interestingly, Mr Awusi indicated, the current food system fed the greater majority of the world population and supported the livelihood of over 1 billion people, however, the food system was under pressure from non-climate stressors, and climate change.
According to him, United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (UNFAO), estimates that 50 percent more food should be produced by 2050 to feed the increasing world population, but sadly, climate change was impacting negatively on Africa’s food security situation and increasing vulnerability.
“For the way forward, we are advocating that African Governments should let the welfare of the youth who are the future man-power development of the Continent be paramount”, he added.
