The Director-General, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Dr. Simeon Ehui, has revealed that youth participation is critical to the future of agriculture and food security, as young people remain central to the adoption of emerging agricultural innovations that can increase productivity and protect the environment.
Ehui, represented by the Deputy Director-General in charge of Partnerships for Delivery, Dr. Tahirou Abdoulaye, made this known at the 2025 International Youth Day event, organised by the Youth in Agribusiness Unit of the institute, with the theme ‘Local Youth Actions for the (Sustainable Development Goals) SDGs and Beyond’. The DG pointed out that the institute introduced the unit over 10 years ago in recognition of the pivotal role of young people in sustainable agriculture and food security. He stated that “IITA is a research and development institute, and we realised early enough that supporting young people to scale our technologies and share such innovations with the rest of the world positions them to contribute significantly to the attainment of Sustainable Development Goals like No poverty, zero hunger, decent work and economic growth and climate action, among others.
“This is why our programme for the youth has grown to become a movement. Now, we have to make other youths across Africa realise that agriculture is profitable and sustainable. IITA is really proud of the achievements of the Youth in Agribusiness Unit, in terms of the thousands of youth-led agribusinesses and jobs the unit has supported young people to create. We recognise the youth as one of the drivers of the SDGs and agricultural transformation, knowing that without the youth, the future of agriculture is in jeopardy”, he said. The Partnership and Stakeholder Engagement Manager, IITA Youth in Agribusiness Unit, Adetola Adenmosun, noted that the International Youth Day was not only for celebrating young people, but also to remind them that they have key roles to play in bringing about the change they like to see in their communities.
She added, “The Youth in Agribusiness Unit of IITA started with about 20 corps members, but today, thousands of young farmers in several African countries have benefitted from the programmes, and many donor organisations have embraced our model, as a viable means of engaging young people in agriculture. This means no idea is too small. Let us, as young people, endeavour to start small and have a plan to grow big. Many big businesses of today started small”.
The programme featured a debate between four teams of corps members who, in pairs, spoke for and against the topics: ‘With capacity development and the right support, young women do better than their male counterparts in sustainable agribusiness and achieving the SDGs; and ‘Is supporting the youth to embrace agribusiness a sustainable solution to unemployment and attainment of relevant SDGs?’ Winners and the first and second runners-up received farm inputs in their chosen commodities, worth hundreds of thousands of naira. The General Manager, British American Tobacco Nigeria (BATN) Foundation, Mr. Oludare Odusanya, who was one of the judges, encouraged young people to explore the vast opportunities in the agriculture sector whether as entrepreneurs or employees.
The General Manager, who was one of the pioneer members of the unit, added that “On this special day to celebrate young people, I like to reiterate that there are vast opportunities across agricultural value chains for the youth to play profitably, including production, value addition, logistics, marketing, and branding. It is very profitable to own a farm now, but even without owning a farm, there are opportunities to be tapped and there is money to be made from this important sector”. The Director of Youth Empowerment, African Agriculture Leadership Institute (AALI), Ms. Dolapo Ogunsola, who also served as a judge, charged young people, especially corps members, not to shy away from agriculture, saying it could be a launch pad for their career in either entrepreneurship or paid employment.
“Our mandate includes country advisory, youth empowerment and private sector collaboration to accelerate Africa’s agricultural transformation”, she stated. At the event, some of the young farmers, who established their agribusiness enterprises after participating in the IITA Youth in Agribusiness programme, emphasised the need for the youth to embrace agribusiness opportunities. They noted further that the training, input support, mentoring and institutional support from IITA, helped them to scale up their enterprises and businesses.
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