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Conference: Jobs, Food & Farming: young people and the future of the agrifood sector in Africa, FAC/ISSER, Ghana 2012

Dates: 19 March 2012 - 21 March 2012

An international conference about youEthiopia_2ng people and the future of the agrifood sector in Africa

19-21 March, 2012, Accra, Ghana

In Africa, policy interest in the ‘young people – agriculture nexus’ focuses almost exclusively on the challenge of keeping young people in rural areas and engaged in farming.This approach ignores important drivers, trends and developments that are impacting on both young people’s aspirations and the structure of the agrifood sector.

In the coming years the agrifood sector in Africa will undergo significant transformation that will result in both challenges and opportunities for young people, depending on who and where they are. Perhaps most importantly, the agrifood sector will become an increasingly important source of formal employment for young people, with a significant expansion of employment opportunities in food marketing, processing, retail, catering, research, input sales etc.These jobs will generally require higher levels of education and different skills, and many will be located in or near urban areas.

It is this context that the conference will critically examine, from both research and policy perspectives:

  • Dominant and alternative framings and narratives, and recent empirical data, relating to how young people engage with the agrifood sector in Africa (as producers, entrepreneurs, employees, consumers and citizens)
  • The dynamics of change in different components of the agri-food sector and the implications of these dynamics for young people
  • The implications for young people of alternative policy approaches to the development of the agri-food sector

 

Throughout, the need to consider different categories of young people and importance of different situations and places will be emphasised. Conflict will be one of the ‘situations’ that will be highlighted.

The conference will be co-hosted by the Future Agricultures Consortium (FAC) based at the Institute of Development Studies and the Institute of Statistical Social and Economic Research (ISSER), University of Ghana, Accra.

Through this conference we hope to help shift the debate away from questions such as “How can farming be made more attractive to young people?” toward a broader analysis the opportunities and challenges, for different categories of young people in different situations, of on-going and likely future changes within the broader agri-food system.Such an analysis should take account of changes not only in food production, but also in processing and transformation, marketing, retail, governance and so on.

In the coming months a call for papers and information on registration will be posted on the conference website at: http://www.future-agricultures.org/

 

Please click Full Details for more information.