Ketsela Negatu is the son of an Ethiopian goat farmer living close to the country's capital, Addis Ababa, who refuses to follow in his father's footsteps. The 19-year-old has negative perceptions about the family profession after seeing the dim prospects a farming livelihood has offered his father. "I will go to the city and try and find work. I don't know what I will do but I want to find a job that pays more money so I can live a good life," he told IPS.

"We will also lose the young who want to be connected and communicate via phones and the Internet if these needs [for reliable power] are not met." -- Cheikh Ly, secretary of the FAO regional conference

But Ketsela's thinking is just like that of other young people on the continent as poor financial returns and unglamorous prospects of Africa's rural economy are spurring young people to leave the fields and migrate to urban centres.

And concern is growing that not enough is being done to engage Africa's largest workforce - its youth - in food production as they are key to safeguarding food security on the continent, eliminating hunger and accessing global food markets.

"There is not enough stimulus for young people to participate in agriculture in African countries. The young farmers need good prices for good products, otherwise we will lose them to the urban areas. Why should they do the hard work and stay poor," Gebremedhine Birega, Ethiopian representative of the NGO East and South African Food Security Network told IPS.

The share of youth in Africa's labour force is the highest in the world with approximately 35 percent in sub-Saharan Africa and 40 percent in North Africa, compared to 30 percent in India, 25 percent in China and 20 percent in Europe. World Bank projections indicate that 60 percent of the world's labour force growth will be in Africa between 2010 and 2050.

Although economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa is expected to reach 6.3 percent in 2014, well above the global average, agricultural leaders at the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) regional conference held in Tunisa from Mar. 24 to 29 agreed that prodigious growth is not translating fast enough into employment for Africa's youth.

Gerda Verburg, chairperson of the Committee on World Food Security, told IPS that increased commercialisation of agriculture will harness unemployed youth in rural Africa and create a productive and profitable agricultural sector. It will thus bolster food security and create decent income and employment opportunities for young people.

Source: Ipsnews