Sorry for joining this discussion late, but I have been tied up the last couple weeks.
I think the major reason youth are losing interest in farming is that most manual operated farming in Africa can not provide food security for the family. This get back to an issue that has been overlooked by the development effort but I keep harping on. That is the shortcoming of agronomy, my discipline, in that agronomy does an excellent job of determining the potential of an area, but says nothing about the operational requirements to extend the small plot results across the rest of the area. It just assume it is not a problem and all that is needed is education on improved technology that is often more labor intensive, in what is usually a severe labor deficit environment, in which most people are operating at a 50% calorie deficit. The solution is to remove as much of the drudgery as possible, starting with facilitating access to contract private sector tillage services. Once this is done, the crop establishment time will be substantially reduced, potential yield will go up, food security more assured, with potential to for crop diversification to more nutrient rich foods, as well as greater surplus to market up the value chain. Once the smallholder agriculture can provide a reasonable quality of living the youth will be more interested in staying in the rural areas.
You might want to compare the manual operations in Africa to the paddy lands of Asia, such as Thailand, Laos, Viet Nam, Malaysia where some 30 years ago the made the major shift from water buffalo to power tillers. This more than halved the crop establishment time, leading to higher yields, increased crop intensity to 5 crops in 2 years, etc. and lead to a more middle class living standard. Since this enhancement of the operational capacity was independent of the development effort, it has been overlooked, but I would contend that it is major reason for the success of the "green revolution" in Asia, with IRRI's yield increase a secondary reason. The 2 were happened concurrently.
Please review the following webpages and linked pages :
RE: Youth in agriculture: what lessons can we draw from evaluations?
Sorry for joining this discussion late, but I have been tied up the last couple weeks.
I think the major reason youth are losing interest in farming is that most manual operated farming in Africa can not provide food security for the family. This get back to an issue that has been overlooked by the development effort but I keep harping on. That is the shortcoming of agronomy, my discipline, in that agronomy does an excellent job of determining the potential of an area, but says nothing about the operational requirements to extend the small plot results across the rest of the area. It just assume it is not a problem and all that is needed is education on improved technology that is often more labor intensive, in what is usually a severe labor deficit environment, in which most people are operating at a 50% calorie deficit. The solution is to remove as much of the drudgery as possible, starting with facilitating access to contract private sector tillage services. Once this is done, the crop establishment time will be substantially reduced, potential yield will go up, food security more assured, with potential to for crop diversification to more nutrient rich foods, as well as greater surplus to market up the value chain. Once the smallholder agriculture can provide a reasonable quality of living the youth will be more interested in staying in the rural areas.
You might want to compare the manual operations in Africa to the paddy lands of Asia, such as Thailand, Laos, Viet Nam, Malaysia where some 30 years ago the made the major shift from water buffalo to power tillers. This more than halved the crop establishment time, leading to higher yields, increased crop intensity to 5 crops in 2 years, etc. and lead to a more middle class living standard. Since this enhancement of the operational capacity was independent of the development effort, it has been overlooked, but I would contend that it is major reason for the success of the "green revolution" in Asia, with IRRI's yield increase a secondary reason. The 2 were happened concurrently.
Please review the following webpages and linked pages :
https://webdoc.agsci.colostate.edu/smallholderagriculture/OperationalFe…;
https://smallholderagriculture.agsci.colostate.edu/calorie-energy-balan…
https://smallholderagriculture.agsci.colostate.edu/promoting-the-green-…
https://smallholderagriculture.agsci.colostate.edu/integration-an-under…