OVERVIEW
Agriculture is basically rural-oriented. Agriculture in Kenya,still is currently labour-intensive, this leads to migration of young and productive labour force from rural areas to urban centers. Agriculture is the mainstay of Kenya’ economy and a key livelihood pillar for the majority of Kenya’s population. It contributes directly to about 26% of the annual GDP and 25% indirectly. About 6
5% of Kenya’s total exports come from this sector and provides more than 70% of informal employment the rural areas. Agriculture comprises of six subsectors namely:
Industrial crops
Food crops
Horticulture
Livestock
Fishery
Forestly
Industrial crops contribute 17 per cent of the AgGDP and 55 per cent of agricultural exports. Horticulture is now the largest subsector, contributing 33 per cent of the AgGDP and 38 per cent of export earnings. Food crops contribute 32 per cent of the AgGDP but only 0.5 per cent of exports, while the livestock subsector contributes 17 per cent of the AgGDP and 7 per cent of exports. Livestock, fisheries and forestry sub-sectors have huge potential for growth that need to be exploited. In Kenya, youth unemployment is a major challenge. It is estimated that 64% of unemployed persons in Kenya are youth. Majority of these are found in the rural areas. Most of these people tender to migrate to the urban areas due to lack of opportunities in their respective homelands. According to study the following as factors identified to inhibit youth participation in agriculture:
• School-to-work transition: The school curricula have generally tended to alienate the youth from careers in agriculture, and as a result the negative effects of the youth study-to-work transition have been more extensive in the agricultural sector than in any other sector. Agriculture is considered to be an occupation of last resort.
• Access to land: Access to productive land is an impediment for both the youth and some women in agriculture. Traditional systems bestow land ownership to family heads, invariably the senior male of a household. This restricts ability of youth to have access to land on which they can invest. For married, whereas they may have access to productive land from their husbands, they often do not have control over its usage.
• Low returns on time and input investments: The traditional staples are slow to mature, risky and often yield low returns
• Seasonality of income: This is tied to rainfall/ harvest cycles. This means that for long periods of time, the youth would have no income.
• Lack of sufficient innovations in the sector leading to reliance on traditional and ardous labour-based production techniques.
• Concentration on a narrow range of agricultural commodities mainly staple crops, 2 Youth & women empowerment through agriculture
• Low investment in the infrastructure such as roads, hubs for produce consolidation, cooler houses and processing plants necessary for evolving of efficient value chains.
• Underutilization of ICT for production and market information: The study recommends injection of a number of innovations in the sector in order to accelerate its transformation from a non-economic, traditional means of livelihood, to a vibrant sector that can attract new ideas and energies that are represented by the youth and women.
• Rebranding: There is need to address the long held belief that agriculture and rural areas are for those who cannot make a livelihood anywhere else. Agriculture needs to be rebranded as the new unexplored frontier for growth in business opportunities.
• Specialization: Re-direct and train youth to specialize either on production, processing or marketing instead of trying to carry out all activities in a value chain..
• Develop innovative financial packages: There is need to provide incentives for entrepreneurs in the sector by developing financial packages that are tailored to the diverse production and marketing conditions and risk factors. The Government and Micro Finance Institutions [MFIs], need to develop a variety of guarantee schemes that would underwrite the risks involved in such packages and invest sufficiently in the same. Increase the level of investment to ensure a regular monthly income of over Ksh. 8,000 per month for the rural areas.
• Value addition: Investment in value addition through processing, branding, quality, shelf life improvements would lead to higher prices, new jobs and eventually increased aggregate incomes in the rural areas.
• Irrigation: Sufficient investment in irrigation and other water harvesting technologies to facilitate full time engagement of the youth and shorter waiting time for economic returns.
• Development of value chains: There is need to improve the performance of the agricultural value chains in Kenya if they have to deliver reasonable returns to all the actors. Currently the value chains for the different commodities are long, un-transparent and cluttered with many players making them inefficient, slow and unresponsive to needs of particularly the producers. A comprehensive approach to value chains for various commodities should be a challenge that each County Government should be persuaded to undertake in partnerships involving the youth, women and the private sector. A listing of some of the key stakeholders is provided in Annex 6.
• ICT: Digitization of agricultural production and marketing information into web-based resources. This would enable wider outreach and use since the few available extension officers don’t reach all farmers in all locations. The youth could actively participate in the generation, posting, management and utilization of this information. Agriculture has largely remained unattractive to young people – men and women- for a variety of reasons. Some of the reasons given include:
• Low returns on time and input investments.
• Seasonality of incomes.
• Lack of education/knowledge on modern farming and marketing approaches.
• Risks due to unpredictable weather and other natural factors such as pests.
• Lack of innovations leading to reliance on traditional labour-based production techniques.
• Concentration on a narrow range of agricultural commodities mainly staple crops.
• Limited access to land among the youth and women.
• Low investments in the infrastructure necessary for efficient value chains, such as roads, hubs for produce consolidation and cooler houses. The following were listed as the key bottlenecks impeding youth participation in agriculture:
• Stiff competition with the same commodities. Everyone seems to produce the same commodities at the same time leading to oversupply at peak times and therefore low returns and extreme scarcity at other times.
• Lack of post harvest and value addition technologies – agro-industries in the farming areas
• Lack of investment capital that is tailored to the needs and peculiar risks of the sector
• Lack of access to land/uneconomic units that erode economies of scale
• Unpredictable weather patterns and lack of appropriate technologies and infrastructure to overcome natural risk factors.
• Attitude towards agriculture as the last port of call after all other opportunities have failed.
• Forming groups to purely access funds such as Government Youth and Women Funds instead of focusing on sustainable group activities
Rural-urban migration has a direct negative impact on agricultural production, this directly affects other sectors of the economy, keeping in mind that Kenya’s economy heavily depends on agriculture, which takes about 30% of the GDP; it has then been a challenge to counter unemployment in Kenya. ABOUT US
Kilimo Bridge has taken the initiative of mobilizing more young people to venture into agriculture with a more positive attitude. After a lot of research we have discovered that, the number of young people who live in the rural areas and have access to important information that is mainly aimed/important at helping them realize the set of goal in undertaking any agricultural activity, is far too little than expected. OUR AIM
To reach more, change more and build more through informing. OUR VISION
To see an equal opportunity economy, lead by example and help more people get to that extra mile. OUR CORE VALUES
Empowerment: to empower the young generation practically through informing to take initiative. Passion: we have the passion of growing communities together
Leadership: we have the authority to lead, the creativity to inspire and the will to foster positive social and economical change. Innovation: we aim at delivering in terms of quantity and quality through creativity. At Kilimo Bridge we believe that greatness lies not in being strong but in the right use of energy. Therefore we aim at utilizing our natural resources to the extremity. Sustainable development for agriculture refers to the wise use of irreversible resources (land, water, energy) and minimizing the adverse environmental impact of manmade resources used in agricultural production (fertilizers, pesticides, non-degradable materials). It includes reducing the use, replacing, and improving these resources as well as treatment for additional agricultural byproducts such as organic waste, spillage and gaseous emissions. Challenges we intend to counter.
1. Rural-urban migration
3. Lack of access to resources (funds, land, equipment)
4. Lack of information
5. Infrastructure
How we intend to do this.
1. Create awareness, training monitoring and evaluation.
2. Enhance more youth involvement through diversification in the sector
3. Technical and financial support
4. Social interaction and talent promotion
5. Benefits & Incentives to motivate youth and their leaders
6. Creativity, initiativeness, responsibility, self-reliance and involvement of other key segment of the society is important (parents & community leaders)
7. Creating a strong, professional system for instruction, learning and application.
8. Reduction of both degradable and non-degradable waste.
9. Community based programs
