Youth engagement in agricultural research - Are you looking for one ...

Main report
Social networks are being used to draw attention to ‘greener’ and
‘more-sustainable’ lifestyles such as in Treemagotchi. In this game,
one has a virtual tree which can be made to grow and flower by
completing small assignments that relate to green and sustainable
food, energy, banking, clothing and living. Players who complete
the assignments win prices that relate to fair trade (http://www.
treemagotchi.nl/). Recently LinkedIn has launched a specific
networking site for college and graduate students that provides
guidance to improving their careers by using LinkedIn (http://
grads.linkedin.com). Devex offers recruiting and business services
for international development through, among other things,
member profiles and job vacancy databases. Devex has indicated
its interest to partner with a youth initiatives such as YPARD to
access their pool of young professionals (http://www.devex.com).
The above underlines the vast and unexplored potential of ICT
for any area of development, including agricultural education and
research. In Section 2.1 of this study, we found that aptitude for,
and willingness to, adopt ICT and other technologies is much
higher among youth than among their seniors. Not only are young
people generally more able to adapt and spread the use of these
technologies better, more frequent and better use of new technologies
may also attract the attention of youth to a specific field.
Some initiatives use awards or other incentives to attract youth
or to recognize their achievements. This can be in the form of an
actual prize (financial or other), by giving them specific attention
and using them as an example for others, or by bestowing a
feeling on them that they have been selected as ‘one of the
lucky few’. This may serve as an encouragement for other young
professionals. In Section 2.2, we discussed the lack of recognition
that young professionals face in their own environments. Being
recognized with an award or some other form of incentive may
assist in improving the recognition of young professionals’
achievements in other environments. The International Award
Association is an example of how incentives are created without
actual financial remuneration. Similar programs could be
developed for agriculture specifically.
Very few of the initiatives specifically mention mentoring
programs. Young professionals often lack experience and certain
specific skills which they could easily learn from their seniors.
The latter however, often lack, or do not take, time to teach
them. To train the leaders of the future, organisations should
create opportunities and time for better junior-senior interactions.
An interesting example of mentoring in entrepreneurship is
the Business in Development Network (BiD) where (young)
entrepreneurs with innovative business plans that have growth
potential are linked to experts that provide mentoring in how to
improve and achieve the plans they have developed. A similar
network could be developed for research. In the private sector,
mentoring and training programs to develop and shape young highpotential
employees are much more common than in agricultural
research and development.
While collecting the information for this study it has become
clear that a great deal of activities and initiatives to engage youth
in agriculture are taking place already. Many of these contribute in
some way or another to the strengthening of agricultural research
and the improved integration of youth in this sector. However, there
is a lack of coherence between these activities. A more broadbased
approach that tackles several problem areas simultaneously
could be more effective. Some initiatives already have started to
gather and share information on ongoing activities or important
underlying data. An example is AET Africa, a portal of information
on agricultural education in Africa (http://www.aet-africa.org/).
However, data on this website cannot be easily converted into
general trends in enrolment. The International Network for
Higher Education in Africa, which monitors the developments
in higher education, is not specific for the agricultural sector
(http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/soe/cihe/inhea/).
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