Are Africa’s youth turning their backs on agriculture? (Welternaehrung)

Welternaehrung (Welthungerhilfe [Germany]) published an op-ed by Athur Mabiso and Senior Research Fellow Rui Benfica. The authors write that there are two sides of the coin regarding youth in Africa.  Africa has the youngest and fastest growing population in the world. The average age south of the Sahara is 18.3 years, in Asia it is 30 years. The number of young people between the ages of 15 and 24 in sub-Saharan Africa will rise to 350 million by 2050, compared to 150 million in 2010.  Some speak of a ‘youth surplus,’ which has a negative aftertaste and arouses associations with massive unemployment, increasing poverty, food insecurity and social unrest. Others see the growing young population in rural areas as an opportunity for a “demographic dividend.”  It will lead to greater productivity and higher incomes and thus to the long-awaited transformation of the continent and more prosperity in rural regions. We should not forget that rural young women and men play an important role in achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The authors suggest investments and political reforms to deal with this growing population.