Sharing youth in agribusiness challenges and successes
In recent years, individuals and organisations have been advocating more strongly for the increased engagement of African youth in agriculture. With an ageing farming population, high youth unemployment and development of innovations in the sector, agriculture could potentially provide greater employment opportunities for young people. However, in order to encourage more youth to be actively engaged in the sector, agriculture has to be made more attractive, and stories of young people successfully participating along the agricultural value chain need to be valorised and shared.
Seeing is believing
There is nothing more convincing than actually seeing youth successfully engaged in agriculture for others to become involved or to be encouraged to take the first steps. On this basis, the initiative Agribusiness TV will focus on youth agricultural entrepreneurship initiatives in Africa and will be the first web television (also known as web TV). Initiated by MediaProd, a company specialised in communication for agricultural and rural development, the project is supported by CTA.
Featuring youth interviews, testimonials and stories from the field, Agribusiness TV will address the following questions: How did these young people achieve success in agribusiness? What were the key factors which made their business idea work? What were the challenges faced and how did they manage to overcome them? What is the current status of youth in agribusiness in Africa, particularly in each of the various countries of focus? Where are the opportunities and how to seize them?
How it works and what to expect?
Agribusiness TV will be launched as a web and mobile application featuring young women and men under 40 years engaged in agribusiness in any segment of the agricultural value chain. The videos will focus on key commodities identified by regional economic organisations (ECOWAS, CEMAC, etc.) and in regional agricultural policy documents, as well as regional trade endeavours. Youth already involved in or interested in agribusiness are the primary target audience for the videos with individuals and organisations supporting youth in agricultural entrepreneurship also targeted.
The project will initially feature quality video reports from four countries in Western and Central Africa: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon and Cote d’Ivoire, although other countries will also be covered to some extent. Other relevant videos produced by partners or other stakeholders will be identified, selected and shared through the web TV.
The team and expected launch
The team behind Agribusiness TV is a group of young African video journalists and agricultural specialists who have worked in the agricultural sector for many years and have a good knowledge of youth in agriculture. An inception workshop will be held during 7-11 February 2016 in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, which will involve the Agribusiness TV team meeting to fine-tune and finalise their work plan for the first phase of the project. Following this workshop, it is expected that the web TV will be officially launched by April 2016.
For more information or to get featured, contact MediaProd at:
Email: agribusiness.tv@gmail.com
Twitter: @AgribusinessTV
Telephone: +226 60 04 23 23
The Agribusiness WebTV initiative is one of the projects selected in 2015 in the framework of the CTA Youth Call for Proposals, launched in the framework of the Agriculture, Rural Development and Youth in the Information Society (ARDYIS) Project.
