Heifer Nigeria, in collaboration with Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), would on October 26, 2021, organizing an event with the theme “Youth and Technology: The Future of Africa’s Agriculture,” at Transcorp Hilton, Abuja that would explore how to transform Nigeria’s agricultural sector through introducing the youth to innovations with the use of technology.

The event which is in line with the NES 27 theme: “Securing Our Future: The Fierce Urgency of Now” will feature an interaction with key stakeholders on the role of youth and technology in the transformation and future of Nigeria’s agricultural sector.

The NES side event is an interactive hybrid program that would bring together multi-stakeholder, including youth innovators, incubators, farmers and agribusinesses, government agencies and donors to support the development and scale-up of innovative solutions capable of transforming Nigeria’s agricultural sector and strengthening food security.

Experts say that by 2050, Africa would have a youth population of over 800 million, with an additional 400 million jobs set to be needed by 2035 for youth across the continent.

Agricultural experts added that the best way to solve the unemployment issue was to get the youth busy in agriculture, using innovations that would make agriculture to absorb many youth and become the largest domestic employer of labour.

Organizers of the event have noted that with agriculture already accounting for an estimated 35 per cent of employment in Nigeria, the sector was ripe for innovation and has the potential to be one of the largest domestic employers, meeting local demands and increasing productivity across the agricultural sector.

Country Director, Heifer Nigeria, Rufus Idris, said that Heifer International’s programmes in Nigeria aim to assist more than one million farmers, and mainly the youth, to reach a sustainable living income by year 2030 through strategic private and public sector partnerships, unlocking demand and market opportunities, leveraging finance across priority value chains, and leveraging innovation and emerging agricultural technologies to reach transformational scale;” asserting that the youth hold the future of agriculture in Africa.

“Youth are the future of agriculture in Africa, and they can bring the much-needed innovation that will enable African farmers to feed the continent’s growing population in the years ahead.

“Leveraging technology and modern practices will create a pathway for Nigeria to increase productivity and competitiveness of the agricultural sector to curb food insecurity and poverty. Heifer International is committed to supporting a business ecosystem that enables youths to drive innovation in the sector, growing their incomes through sustainable and scalable food, and farming practices,” Idris said in a statement made available to News Express.

“For more than 47 years, Heifer International has been working side by side with smallholder farmers in Africa, supporting them to reach a sustainable living income. Investing in infrastructure, facilitating access to finance, supporting ground up innovation and building social capital are central to Heifer’s approach, ensuring that smallholder farmers are able to benefit from agricultural value chains.”

According to him, a recent Heifer survey across 11 countries revealed that while there is a wide range of agritech innovations that could propel Nigerian farmers to profitability, only 23 per cent of youth engaged in agriculture were using any form of agricultural technology.

The report of the survey, he said, revealed the need for new investments to stimulate access to innovations to encourage African youth who were turning away from agriculture to reconsider opportunities in the sector, especially given the need to generate jobs and repair food systems already affected by the pandemic.