Part 2 - Building a Better Tomorrow: Youth Initiative for Agribusiness [BBT-YIA]

Most of the graduates from universities and colleges lack practical and employable skills. Thus, there is a big mismatch between the labor market needs and what universities and colleges [URT, 2021] produce. Incubation, internship, and training industry-government linkages (TIGLs) could address the mismatch. However, these options have not only remained weak but also exclude agriculture [Kaijage, 2007]. As a result, most of the youth in agribusiness lack practical skills. The absence of new farming technologies’ application skills, entrepreneurship, and financial management skills among youth, particularly those in rural areas, have remained critical challenges limiting their performance and accessibility to resources such as loans (Youth Forum; URT/MoA, 2020). Access to extension services to youth is also limited, a situation that discourages youth engagement in agriculture (URT/MoA, 2020). Youth in rural areas have smartphones but they lack skills to use them to access information related to market, access to agro-inputs and logistics [Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation, 2020]. Most of the youth lack awareness about health-related issues which are important in their daily life [Lindsjö et al., 2020].

Limited access to and ownership of land: Land is a major input in agricultural production. Limited access to land among youth in agriculture has been extensively reported (URT/ MoA, 2020) and increasingly becoming more challenging because of population growth and delayed transfer of land ownership to youth due to increased life expectancy [Lindsjö, et al., 2020]. The majority of youth either farm in family or land leased on seasonal/short-term basis [URT, 2016, Lindsjö, et al., 2020; Snyder et al., 2019]. Both options of access to land are associated with limited investment and restrictions on the application of fertilizer and pesticide hence low outputs [Lindsjö, et al., 2020]. As youth cannot invest (install irrigation systems) in the land they do not own, they have been farming based on rainy seasons (URT/MoA, 2020), which has been affected by climate change. Farming family land implies that youth have limited control of output, hence lack of resources to purchase their own land and become independent [Snyder et al., 2019].

Limited access to agro-inputs and extension services: Compared to the middle age group, youth apply less mechanized farming techniques, i.e., application of low-quality seeds, non-use of fertilizers and pesticides even when the improved seeds and other agro-inputs are available in their localities. This is because they lack cash to procure them and their access to sources of finance (direct credits) [Lindsjö et al., 2020] and value chain financing are limited. Consequently, youth perceive the utilization of improved agricultural inputs and application of recommendations from extension officers as expensive and unaffordable [Lindsjö et al., 2020]. In some of the rural areas, the supply of tools and machineries is limited, which is also a major obstacle for mechanization of farming among youth [Lindsjö et al., 2020]. iv. Limited access to market, related infrastructure, and auxiliary services: Limited accesses to market, appropriate logistics facilities, packaging materials and limited market information have been the major challenges for youth [Suleiman, 2018]. These challenges result in unreliable and low price of crops and high post-harvest losses, especially for perishable crops like horticulture in which majority of youth are involved in (URT/ MoA, 2020; Ng’atigwa et al., 2020). Transport costs are also considered very high (URT/ MoA, 2020). The development of out-grower schemes or contract farming, which could provide a ready market and facilitate value chain financing and access to improved agro-inputs, is challenged by the lack of contract farming law/ regulation to govern contract farming implementation and protection of parties involved. Consequently, enforcement of contract farming has remained weak and the interests of parties in the contract are not protected. Some contract buyers, who sometimes offer inputs to youth on credit, fail to collect their money through buying crops from the youth as youth get involved inside selling.

Part 1 - Building a Better Tomorrow: Youth Initiative for Agribusiness [BBT-YIA]

"Youth (i.e. people aged between 15 and 35) and children (people aged less than 15 years) account 31% and 44% of population respectively. An estimated three quarters of the country’s population [United Republic of Tanzania - URT (2021]. Given the high birth rate (4.9) [URT, 2021], the share of youth is expected to continue increasing. Thus, Tanzania is, and would continue to be one of the countries with the youngest population in the world, with median age of 18 years (in 2022) [World Population Review, 2022], which is lower than the median age for Africa (20 years), Asia (30 years) and Europe (40 years) [Figure 1]. A growing youth population is one of the nation’s competitive advantages because youth are considered more productive, avid users of technology, eager to learn and try new things more than adults. If youth are facilitated and given opportunities to actively participate in economic activities, they have the potential to contribute to an increase in GDP by more than 10 times [African Development Bank – AfDB, 2016].

A typical Tanzanian youth aged 18 is preparing to enter the labor market to seek employment. However, given the design of the education system, this youth has neither employable skills nor capital (land and savings) and entrepreneurship skills to establish a business. Although youth in Tanzania accounts for a higher share (56%) of active labor force [ILFS, 2021], they are however more likely to be unemployed, underemployed or working in more precarious conditions than adults [AfDB, 2016]. The labor force survey of 2014 reveals that 93% and 82% of youth who are employed in rural and urban areas respectively are working in vulnerable/ indecent jobs [Youth Forum, no date]. On average, a million youth enter the labor market annually but only 25% of them can secure employment Figure 1: Median population (years) immediately [URT, 2021]. Youth unemployment and underemployment are set to increase given limited job creation in rural and urban areas [Lindsjö et al., 2020] and thus threatening peace and sustainable development [AfDB, 2016]. Thus, high job creation strategies are required to address youth unemployment. The meeting by African Heads of State and Governments (Tanzania inclusive), which was held in 2014 in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea concluded that youth agribusiness is the best strategy for addressing unemployment [STRATEGIS, 2020]. Youth agribusiness as a strategy is recommended for several reasons: i) in Tanzania (and Africa at large), more than 70% of population (and thus majority of youth) live in rural areas, where agriculture is the main activity (accounting 65.5% of employment, 29% of GDP, 30% of export earnings, and 65% of industrial raw materials [URT/MoA, 2017], and therefore the strategy will address more youth; ii) agribusiness, farming in particular, has high potential of creating more jobs as it accounts for 59.1% of the total new jobs created [Allen et al., 2016]; iii) there is still plenty of unutilized land as only less than 25% of 44 million hectares of arable land (of which 29.4% can apply irrigation) is currently being used for farming [Tumbo et al., 2017]; and iv) youth’s higher willingness to apply new technologies is appropriate in transforming agriculture for food security given increasing population hence the high demand for food [AfDB, 2016; Lindsjö et al., 2020].

Compared to other sectors, farming provides more employment opportunities to youth. However, key findings from the MSU/Master Foundation Study [Allen et al., 2016] reveal that for the past 15 years, there has been a rapid transformation of African economies and Tanzania inclusive. Labor has been moving from farming into off-farm segments of the economy. Compared to other African countries, the rate of exit for Tanzania is relatively high. When labor is computed as full-time equivalents (FTE), it is estimated that farming (of own farms plus hired farm labor) accounts for 43% to 48% of the labor force in Tanzania, the off-farm segments of the agri-food system account for 17% and the off-farm sector outside the agri-food system, mainly commerce and transport, construction, and the public sector, employs about 35%. Despite the ongoing economic transformation, farming still accounts for more new jobs (52%) created. However, the off-farm segments of the agrifood system account for lower (16%) new jobs created than the off-farms sector outside the agri-food system (32%). This could be explained by weak value addition and several challenges limiting the commercialization of food agricultural value chains which are dominated by women and youth.

This was to be achieved through the attainment of several objectives stated in its National Strategy for Youth Involvement in Agriculture – NSYIA (2016-2021). Among the objectives, include facilitating youth to access and acquire land, access financial services, agro-inputs, irrigation infrastructure and facilitating access to market [URT, 2016]. Some achievements of the implementation of NSYIA (2016-2021) have been reported [URT, 2021]. However, there is still limited information on the extent to which the implementation of NSYIA (2016-2021) has been successful. Nevertheless, the National Conference on Youth Involvement in Agriculture (NCYIA) which was held in Songwe, Njombe, Tabora, Arusha, Geita, Mara and Dares-Salaam in 2020 confirmed the continued existence of challenges limiting effective youth involvement in agriculture (URT/MoA, 2020). Notable challenges include the following: i. Lack of skills: About 70% of youth aged between 14 and 17 are not enrolled in secondary education (Technoserve, 2021) and thus they enter the agribusiness career and the labor market unprepared as they lack appropriate agribusiness related skills. Even those who are able to continue with secondary and tertiary education, only around 38% of them are medium-highly skilled [URT, 2021]." Direct quote from "BUILDING A BETTER TOMORROW: YOUTH INITIATIVE FOR AGRIBUSINESS (BBT-YIA) (2022 - 2030)."

Follow us to see the rest of the article posted next month...