| With the rising youthful population as well as the unemployment rate in sub-Saharan Africa, agriculture stands as a potential employment sector to provide jobs for the youth and promote sustainable and inclusive growth. Young people's empathy for agriculture, however, seems not to have changed despite government policies aimed at encouraging them to embrace agricultural jobs. Combining participant and focused interviews, this research finds out from the youth reasons that keep them away from agriculture. Findings reveal that youth have a negative perception of agriculture which is shaped by their society and educational system. The study thus identifies education as a powerful tool to reshape this perception by presenting agriculture as a viable employment sector which needs the ingenuity of young people to improve. Also, it underscores the importance of moving away from the colonial understanding of agriculture by making agricultural development an Africa-owned initiative which needs political will, investment and young people to thrive. In arguing for an innovative restructuring of agriculture, the paper posits that Africans need to move past the idea that modernization is equal to westernization and adopt appropriate tools and mechanisms. Lastly, it recognizes intra-regional trade as a powerful avenue which needs to be harnessed to compensate for the limitations imposed by the rules of international trade. |
