July 02, 2020

Will the young African agri-preneurs survive COVID-19 and the Climate Crisis?

By Catherine Mungai, Matthew Fielding, Mary Thiong’o, Alphaxard Gitau and Sharon Anyango

The COVID-19 pandemic is disrupting agricultural value chains in Africa by threatening food nutrition and security as well as the livelihoods of farming communities that rely on agriculture directly as a source of income. In addition, climate related catastrophes such as floods and the desert locusts have compounded the problems facing the most vulnerable populations especially the rural youth.

Whilst development partners and governments have been encouraging the youth to embrace agriculture as a source of income it is worth noting that young rural people especially young women are among the most vulnerable groups and are at high risk to disproportionately suffer both from the pandemic and its aftermath. The youth already face higher rates of unemployment and underemployment, and are overrepresented in the informal economy where they are 40% more likely to be in casual work arrangements than those above 35yrs. Most earn their income on a daily or weekly basis and have little or no access to health insurance or social security. At the same time, it is increasingly being observed that some of the policy responses and measures put in place by governments to halt the spread of the virus are exacerbating existing challenges that rural youth face in engaging in agriculture and agribusiness. For example, several formal and informal businesses, which employ large numbers of youth have been forced to close or downscale significantly as a result of lockdowns and movement restrictions at national and local levels.

However, it is not all lost as it is emerging that many young people are implementing innovative ideas to address the current food availability crisis using various digital platforms. An online discussion hosted on the Climate and Agriculture Network for Africa (CANA) platform from the 20th May 2020 reveals that while the youth are facing challenges, the struggle they face is leading to some innovative coping mechanisms.

“…I have seen some interesting innovations with an example of a youth in the suburb where I stay, who told me his story of how he has ... lost his job and to survive he has ... acquired an old bicycle and loads it with fruits and vegetables. He uses a loudspeaker to call out to whoever needs the items he has as he rides through the neighbourhood…” by Stella Naggujja, CANA online discussion

Ian Mutwiri of Homegrown Kuku shared how his team has developed online manuals on poultry farming,

We developed an online poultry training module, what it is very interesting about it took us almost two years to conceptualise it, but it only took for us two weeks (the moment covit-19 hits) to implement it

He also mentioned "We hosted on the Facebook groups, we created content that is almost 12 hours, this content is comprehensive and it involves a poultry farm and you see how the farm looks and how it operates. This online training has been quite an eye opener”

Additionally Antony Malovi of CSAYN has developed a solar drier using locally available materials given that he was unable to import the same as a result of COVID-19 lockdown.

Two experts from FAO and Practical Action were also invited to the webinar. One of them Marzia Pafumi, Youth Engagement Specialist (FAO) argued,

Youth agripreneurs responded to COVID-19 very fast, trying to adapt their business models and thinking outside the box to find new opportunities.

She mentioned that as a result of the pandemic, there has been an accelerated move to online marketing and sales, such as orders on social media, home delivery and an increase in mobile payments. "Agripreneurs also started to work more with adding value to primary products. Many of them started to use locally sourced agricultural inputs."

Additionally, Mr Jacob Ochieng (Practical Action) highlighted the unprecedented impact COVID-19 is having on the economy worldwide. Practical Action is supporting agribusinesses and youth so they can remain safe by providing access and distributing information on the best practices about stopping the spread of the virus. Ochieng also underscored the importance of keeping essential agricultural services running.

Marketing and networking for agripreneurs is not possible during a lock-down, but digital platforms and social media that will help to coordinate are key when people can not physically meet to negotiate, transact or receive training

In conclusion, he mentioned that innovations and the combined learnings about climate change and COVID-19 should be utilized in activities related to resilience for youth in agribusiness.

The main outcomes

From the webinar discussions can be concluded that to overcome the challenges that COVID-19 pandemic, young workers and entrepreneurs in the agri-food will need support in the following areas:

Mentorship

There is a gap in terms of participation from young female agripreneurs and this can be attributed to various challenges including social- cultural barriers such as access to land and lack of technical skills. Mentorship from established young male and especially female agripreneurs was seen as essential for upcoming young agripreneurs.

Financial Access

There is need to offer access to capital for the youth as well as the development of youth focused financial tools to support the establishment and sustainable running of youth led agribusinesses

Capacity building

Governments and development partners can work in partnership with established agribusinesses and with youth centered organizations to establish centers of excellence which include demonstration sites and knowledge sharing centers for young people.

The discussions at the webinar made clear that during challenging times the youth can be innovative and continue to stay in business thriving in the post-pandemic new world order.

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