First Asia-Pacific Young Farmers’ Camp and Agrilympics (YFCA)
Young people are often regarded as the largest contributor and driving force in creating sustainability in any industry or profession, as the majority of the workforce will eventually be coming from the youth. According to the United Nations, there are 1.8 billion young people between the ages of 10-24, which is the largest generation of youth in history. In a decade, the workforce of all professions will be dominated by young people wherein their decisions in choosing their career path will be attributed to the viability of the sector/industry and their interest.
This is especially true for young people in agriculture as youth are seen to have the potential to make significant contributions to agricultural development at various levels. For many decades, the rural youth have been neglected by their communities and governments, and this neglect led to unemployment, underemployment, and engagement in informal, insecure, and hazardous jobs and labor. Because of the lack of opportunities for young people in rural areas, they are compelled to migrate to cities to be able to access better work and income opportunities. Moreover, the young people who continue to stay working on farms were often forced to stay or did not have a better option for employment. This has resulted in another problem—the aging of the farming population, which is apparent not just at the regional level in Asia but also at the global level.
In less than a decade, experts predict a critical shortage of farmers worldwide, endangering food sufficiency and agricultural sustainability. This impending crisis underscores the urgent need to address the challenges faced by young people in agriculture.
In 2014, the Asian Farmers’ Association for Sustainable Rural Development (AFA) began its work on rural youth in agriculture and was able to conduct a series of national and regional consultations among youth leaders of AFA member organizations. The consultation was able to provide context on why agriculture is not attractive to young people. The discussions centered on seven interrelated reasons why many of the youth, including children of farmers, do not want to farm, if they have a choice.
1. Farmers’ low identity and self-image
Farming is regarded as a lowly, back-breaking, unglamorous, dirty job needing little skills which contributes to low pride and lack of dignity in farming. This low regard is also being reinforced in societies.
2. Farming is not a profitable job
Majority of farmers are poor and do not gain enough income from agriculture. The decreasing income is due to increasing cost of agricultural labor and inputs such as seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides.
3. Insecure land ownership and increasing land price
Farmers who cultivate land are deprived of ownership because of massive land acquisition and land transfer to private entities specifically for economic and industry use.
4. Lack of rural infrastructure
There is a lack of good infrastructure and institutions such as roads, electricity, health centers, hospitals, schools and universities, entertainment, internet infrastructures, business establishments and markets to sell their agricultural produce as well as facilities for small and medium scale agro-industries or factories to attract youth to stay in rural areas.
5. Lack of supportive government policies and programs for farmers
Many governments in developing countries do not focus on formulating and implementing policies/programs for smallholder farmers, but rather, give priority to corporate farming and large-scale industrial agriculture. Thus, many farmers lack access to land, credit and financing, and markets. Moreso, there is a lack of policies and programs addressing the needs of the rural youth and young farmers which makes it difficult to compete with big commercial farms.
6. Lack of curriculum on land, agrarian reform, and agriculture
Many schools and university curricula in developing countries do not include land and agriculture, resulting in the neglect of land and agrarian reform and discouraging young farmers to pursue agricultural careers.
7. Lack of organizations of young farmers at the local, national, and international level
There are very few organized groups at the local, national, and international level for young farmers for solidarity, exchange of information and ideas, and to support each other’s endeavors to represent their interest in different decision-making bodies.
OBJECTIVES
1. Raise public consciousness and awareness among youth that farming can be both fun and viable career
2. Encourage agricultural cooperatives and farmers/producers’ organizations to strengthen the engagement of their youth members through the creation of mechanisms for active participation of youth in the cooperative governance
3. Draw out and popularize existing agricultural production and enterprise initiatives
4. Inspire young farmers to develop innovative ideas
5. Provide space for dialogue between senior/mentors and young farmers
6. Catalyze the formation of young farmers organization network in Asia and the Pacific