By Oluwabunmi Ajilore, originally posted at YPARD
It is counter-productive to discuss agricultural sustainability unless agriculture is made more appealing to today’s youth. Indeed young people are those who have the best capabilities for change on a long term, for a climate-smart agriculture – that’s to say, for a productive agriculture that doesn’t deplete our environment. This was the viewpoint and position of the representatives of young professionals and students in agriculture at the stakeholders’ meeting on “Farmers, agriculture and the UNFCCC”, on the sidelines of the COP20 in Lima Peru.
The stakeholders’ event, which was organized by the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security – CCAFS, was convened to gather the views of different stakeholders in the agricultural sector and to deliberate on the way forward to getting agriculture into the United Nations Framework on Climate Change Convention (UNFCCC) COP negotiations. Young people’s perspectives were represented through YPARD: the young professionals for agricultural development, GLF Youth Steering Committee members and facilitators.
Riding on the back of a highly successful Global Landscapes Forum (GLF) Youth program, including masterclasses and a Dragon’s Den idea-pitching session – which the Vice-President of the World Bank and one of the dragons on the panel: Rachel Kyte, described as “one of the best events” she would be attending all through the COP20 activities – youth representatives at the CCAFS’ stakeholders meeting boldly outlined their views on agriculture in climate negotiations and highlighted their vision for youth involvement in an increasingly climate-smart agriculture era.
In the eyes of these young experts, there is no point trying to work on solutions to combat climate change and its present and future negative impacts on agriculture and food security, if the main demography of people meant to implement these solutions as farmers and agriculturists – young people – do not find the agri-sector appealing enough or are not themselves actively involved in the process of positioning agriculture in the COP negotiations – and participate as active stakeholders in the actual negotiations moving forward.
Read full blog at YPARD
