Striving towards food security: The role of innovation

Agriculture is the backbone of the regional economy since it accounts for about 32per cent of the region’s Gross Domestic Product(GDP). Therefore, any growth in the agricultural sector has the potential of not only raising incomes, but also creating employment opportunities and reduce poverty.

McKinsey reports that over 60 percent of Africa’s population is small holder farmers and by 2050 Africa’s population is estimated at two billion people.

Despite being a field that can be full of innovations driven by young people, those engaged in agriculture sector currently are typically elderly people who are either retired or business farmers while the number of youths with jobs in agricultural sector continues to drop.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture, the average age of farmers in Kenya is 59 years and so the questions we need to ask ourselves are: Why are young people shying away from agriculture and how can agriculture be made a ‘cool’ sector for the youth.

As a country, we lack a skilled and spirited youthful generation especially in the agricultural sector. We are lacking techniques and innovations to leverage the vast agricultural resources to build thriving economies, ensure food security and uplift the lives of the Kenyan communities.

Since there is always a mismatch between the nutritional needs of Africa’s ever-growing population, we have never benefitted from the vast opportunities available in the agricultural sector.

The other challenges are, poor resource management, high costs of production, poor farming techniques and low budgetary allocations which have continued to slow the growth of the agricultural sector and disjointed supply chain policies.

However, data and innovation can play a key role in connecting the dots. From our experience of creating a convergence between the academia, financial institutions, private sector, policy makers and data analysts what is coming becoming clear is lack of data and how we can empower the farmers.

How can we leverage on our vast agricultural resources to build thriving economies, ensure food security and uplift the lives of our communities? Africa still has 60 percent of the global arable land.

In order for us to unleash the potential of agriculture, we need to provide solutions to the fundamental challenges of food insecurity and poverty. We must therefore be ready to develop innovative solutions and increase the levels of investments into the sector.

It is against this background that Strathmore University Business School in partnership with AGCO Corporation, a global leader in the design, manufacture and distribution of agricultural equipment launched the first junior management trainee programme referred to as the AGCO Agribusiness Qualification Programme for the years 2017 – 2018.

The two-year agribusiness programme was delivered in Nairobi, Zambia and South Africa to develop talent to fill vital junior management roles in agriculture and the supply chain, which is currently a major gap in the skills’ resource of Kenya and Africa as a whole.

It targeted the youth aged 20-30 years who upon successful completion explored job opportunities within AGCO and the agricultural supply chain in Africa.

Good management skills will enable the country to generate new capacities and new skills in agribusiness. Embed data driven management of agriculture value chains will encourage the youth uptake of agriculture at a time when the demand for food production is driving change in farming practices across Africa.

As opportunities in the sector become increasingly attractive, innovation can help in providing sustainable solutions in the agricultural sector and fiscal policy frameworks will support significant investments into the sector. I believe that a well-structured and managed agricultural project will have the potential to generate benefits for the individual, the communities and to the regions. This will only be achieved by adopting innovation and technology as a new management skill framework to addressing agricultural problems.

Since the youth hold the future of the continent, and by 2030 they will represent 70percent of our population, we need to invest in their demographic dividends through agricultural innovation and management skills development.

The writer is Executive Dean, Strathmore University Business School.