DURBAN, May 4 (ANA) – Youth in sub-Saharan Africa were simply not interested in agriculture as a career, with the average age of Africa’s small-scale farmers over 60 years.
This emerged during a session at the World Economic Forum on Africa taking place in Durban this week.
“The average age of our small-scale farmers is 60 to 65 years. That’s retirement age for most people in this room,” said Birjup Patel from the Export Trading Group company during the session titled “Africa’s Food Paradox”.
Patel said that there was a stigma attached to farming as it was often viewed as a chore.
“The solution is to make them into entrepreneurs,” said Patel.
That would involve giving young people access to finance, risk management tools, insurance and technology.
The session heard that Africa spent $35 billion a year importing food, not counting fish, and that by 2025 this figure was expected to reach $110 billion as the population was expected to continue increasing.
– African News Agency (ANA)
