YFCA

Young people are regarded as the largest contributor and driving force in creating sustainability in any industry or profession, with the majority of the future workforce emerging from the youth. According to the United Nations, there are 1.8 billion young people between the ages of 10-24, the largest generation of youth in history. In a decade, young people will dominate the workforce across all professions, and their career choices will be influenced by the viability and appeal of various sectors. This is particularly true for agriculture, where youth have the potential to make significant contributions to development at multiple levels. However, for many decades, rural youth have been neglected by their communities and governments, leading to unemployment, underemployment, and engagement in informal, insecure, and hazardous jobs. The lack of opportunities in rural areas has compelled many young people to migrate to cities in search of better work and income, while those who remain on farms often do so out of necessity rather than choice. This has resulted in an aging farming population, a problem apparent both regionally in Asia and globally. Experts predict a critical shortage of farmers worldwide within less than a decade, endangering food sufficiency and agricultural sustainability. This impending crisis underscores the urgent need to address the challenges faced by young people in agriculture.

As part of the work to attract and strengthen youth engagement in agricultural development, the consortium of AFA, ICA-AP, and PFO will be conducting a five-day Young Farmers’ Camp and Agrilympics (YFCA) activity on August 12-16, 2024 in Los Baños, Laguna, Philippines. The project intends to contribute to creating an enabling environment and platform/ mechanism for the youth to continue to participate in agriculture. Our goals are to raise public awareness among youth that farming can be a fun and viable career, encourage agricultural cooperatives to engage their youth members in cooperative governance, highlight existing agricultural initiatives, inspire young farmers to develop innovative ideas, provide space for dialogue between mentors and young farmers, and catalyze the formation of a young farmers' organization network in Asia and the Pacific.