Young people face a very uncertain future in agriculture. Many of them, with more education than their parents, have different aspirations that do not include agriculture.
In that, they are often supported by their parents, who see farming as a dirty job that involves hard labor and barely supports a sustainable livelihood. Even so, parents may allow young men to attend training or join farmers’ groups, while young women are expected to perform household chores such as fetching water, cooking and cleaning.
At the same time, rural life is being transformed by information and computer technologies, which young people are often better able to exploit. They are likely more aware of climate change and the need to innovate and adapt.
Based on research insights, RTB is developing efforts to meet the needs of young people, in part as a contribution to meeting Sustainable Development Goal 4.4, a substantial increase in the number of young people with relevant skills.
One of the key recommendations is gender-responsive agricultural diversification, which is helping to modernize farming and make it more attractive to young people. Interest in agriculture can be increased if young women and men have the opportunity to directly apply the knowledge and skills they have gained though formal education. The knowledge-intensive nature of many aspects of modernized agriculture, for example, in relation to climate change adaptation and mitigation or specialized production of niche-market goods, is likely to increase the appeal of agriculture.