1

Involvement of Youth in Agriculture: Experiences from livestock

production and value chains

Siboniso Moyo (International Livestock Research Institute-ILRI), Purvi Mehta (ILRI) and Gerald Mutinda (East Africa Dairy Development)FANRPAN Annual Policy Dialogue, 20th September in Swaziland

Presentation Outline• Introduction• The importance of the livestock sector in Africa• Youth involvement at the production level• Youth involvement post production (marketing,

processing..)• East Africa Dairy Development Programme• Ways of involving the youth at production and post

production levels• ILRI capacity development programme and linkages

with other organizations and institutes

Who we are? ILRI is generating and integrating knowledge to enable diverse partners to find innovative solutions to

make livestock a sustainable pathway out of poverty

Consultative Group of International Agriculture Research

The importance of the livestock sector in Africa

• Livestock products (meat, milk and eggs) contribute about 20-40% to the Agricultural GDP of many countries in Africa.

• The above estimates exclude non food products like draught animal power and manure, risk buffer in cases of crop failure, economic role and social status.

• “Multifunctionality of livestock should be taken into consideration in order to reflect the true contribution of livestock to the economy.

Are Youth involved in livestock production and value chains?

• YES and NO – Mixed results (varies from species to species, and from country to country).

• Scanning through projects and reports in the sector indicated that there is limited disaggregated data by age which is reported.

• I will use results from some of ILRI’s projects with partners, researchers’ own experiences and ILRI’s capacity development programmes.

Youth involvement at production level

• Cattle - Mainly owned by the elderly with the youth as herders.

• Goats – mainly owned by women, youth and children, and they can at times make decisions on when to sell.

• Poultry – active involvement of youth. Seen as a quick cash income to supplement salaries. Thriving in peri-urban areas.

Youth involvement at post production level

• At post production level the picture is different. More and more youth participate.

• Youth actively involved in marketing and processing.

• Youth realize the value of livestock as assets which they can sell to raise money for investment in better housing, transport, etc.

East Africa Dairy Development Programme

East Africa Dairy Development (EADD)

• Is a regional industry development program implemented by a consortium of partners funded by BMGF. Started in 2008 and is currently being piloted in 18 sites in Kenya, 8 in Rwanda and 27 in Uganda.

• EADD is in partnership with: Heifer International, ILRI, Animal Breeding Services, TechnoServe and World Agro forestry Centre

East Africa Dairy Development• The overall goal of the project is to transform the lives

of 179,000 families, or about 1 million people, by doubling household dairy income in 10 years through integrated interventions in dairy production, market access and knowledge application.

• Since inception, issues of equitable participation and benefiting of men, women and youths have been highly acknowledged and prioritized for deeper dialogue both amongst EADD partners and the BMGF. Key areas, performance indicators and targets identified

Gender and Youth integration in EADD (results so far)

Membership, Shareholding and economic participation in dairy farmers business associations and dairy management groups

Performance Indicators (project target was to reach at least 30% for women and 20% for youth)

Overall Women

Youths Young Women- below 35y

% women & youth registered in dairy groups

% women & youth shareholders in CP

% women & youth constituting model farmers

% women & youth accessing BDS services

% women & youth hired in CPs and DFBAs

27

31

25

29

24

21

17

12

13

70

7

5

4

4

17

Gender and Youth integration in EADD (results so far)

Participation in Leadership, Decision making, and management structuresPerformance Indicators (project target was to reach at least 30% for women and 20% for youth)

Overall Women

Youth Young Women- below 35y

% women & youth composing B. of Directors

% women & youth attending the last AGM

% CP Management staff, managers and unit heads

% women & youth Extension Officers

29

38

34

18

16

15

73

47

4

6

27

7

Ways of involving the youth at production and post production levels

• Catch them young: Introduce livestock production in schools (some boarding schools have such programmes-mainly poultry, piggery and dairy farming)

• Profile young successful farmers as role models. Let them participate in career guidance events in schools along side the accountants, medical doctors, engineers, etc

Profile Young successful farmers :The story of Douglas Kanja

• Kenya Business Daily Newspaper of 1st September had an article with a headline “Young farmer milks his way to wealth”– 26 year old university graduate who grew up in

the city and works for a computer company– Visited a dairy farm to repair computers and saw

an interesting business opportunity– Quit his job and bought cows from his benefits– Now passionate about his million dollar farming

business (hands on person, kept busy by the work)

ILRI is committed to play its part in building Capacity of youth

Research Training within research programsGraduate fellowsTechnical collaborators Visiting scientists

Capacity strengthening of partners (R4D)Linked to implementation of programs (research, policy, development implementers)Training materials / courses from research

ILRI Areas of Collaboration with African Universities.

Graduate Fellowship Programs

Collaborations with Academic Institutes

Curriculum Design

Building capacity to Build capacity

Student PopulationContracts current on Aug 29th

Addis Nairobi TotalGraduate Fellows 22 76 98

Student Associates 1 26 27

Attachment Associates 6 5 11

Technical Associates 0 0 0

Total 29 106 135

Ways of involving the youth at production and post production levels

• Pass on the knowledge and skills from generation to generation. Mentor and coach the young.

• Establish national programmes that target the youth (eg. The Youth programme by the GoB)

• Strengthen partnerships and collaboration:

share lessons as FANRPAN is doing this week.

Acknowledgements

• EADD project team – especially Gerald who provided some of the data presented here today www.eadairy.org.

• ILRI colleagues (Purvi, Jemimah, Isabelle, Saskia, Maute, Romuald, and Tezira) www.ilri.org.

• The farmers and communities we work with.

International Livestock Research InstituteBetter lives through livestock

Animal agriculture to reduce poverty, hunger and environmental degradation in developing countries

www.ilri.org

Thank You! Merci! Obrigado! Siyabonga