Rural youth, today and tomorrow
2019
White B.
What would it mean to develop a youth-inclusive agricultural and rural development agenda? Agriculture, and particularly smallholder farming, remains the single largest source of youth employment in most low- and middle-income countries (LIMCs), but today’s young rural men and women express little interest in agricultural futures. However, research on rural youth aspirations suggests that many young people are not averse to agriculture as such, but to agriculture’s current neglected condition and the near impossibility of becoming an independent farmer while still young, due to lack of access to land. Rural youth outmigration does not necessarily reflect a permanent, lifetime abandonment of rural life, agriculture or the possibility of a return to farming. A youth-inclusive agricultural and rural development agenda means: approaching young people not as instruments of development, but as subjects, actors and citizens; mainstreaming young people and their interests in policy dialogues, organizations and social/political movements, both locally and nationally; more effective support for small-scale agriculture and opportunities for young rural men and women to engage in farming, including provision of land and other agrarian resources as a cornerstone of rural youth policy; and investment in infrastructures that make rural places more attractive for young men and women to live and work in.
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