The Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa says agricultural yields have declined by 34percent due to climate change and affecting smallholder farmers.
With more than 55 percent of African youth living in rural areas, many remain directly dependent on farming yet lack secure land or access to modern tools.
The continent`s youth therefore want governments to implement laws and policies to enhance their contribution to tackling climate change, bio-diversity loss, and desertification, while promoting agroecology and pastoralism.
Youth and Land Multi-Stakeholder platform in Africa Laureen Ongesa, demanded youth-centred land governance, while addressing a youth workshop in Nairobi on customary tenure rights and agroecology aimed at producing a position paper on youth land rights as central to climate resilience and food security.
“There is a pressing need for interventions that directly involve young people in addressing the challenges of climate change,” said Ken Otieno, Executive Director of the Resource Conflict Institute.
Founder and coordinator of the Youth Initiative for Land in Africa, Innocent Antoine Houedji, said that youth must be empowered to actively engage in agriculture through agroecological approaches that balance production with environmental stewardship.
Speaking at the event, Evans Kipruto, an adviser of Kenya`s Council of Governors, said: “We must make agriculture attractive to young people so they are seen as a burden on governments.”
The East African
