IFAMA Young Board Corner Edeoba Edobar

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Young Board THE YOUNG BOARD CORNER AGRICULTURAL TRANSFORMATION AND THE IMPERATIVE OF YOUTH PARTICIPATION driven by countries which could be described as food insufficient. This coupled with the existential threats of climate change, and Corner. Since our last publication, the menace of youth unemployment means the IFAMA global conference in Costa that the year 2050 has assumed some sort Rica has come and gone, but it has left of apocalyptic connotation in the sustainable beautiful memories that inspire this episode development circle just like the Y2K of the Young Board Corner. The conference phenomenon at the turn of this millennium. It was an opportunity to spend time together is therefore a fait accompli that for the world with some of the finest minds in the agri-food to be sustainably fed, clothed, and clean fuel space, learn about issues shaping our sector, needs met, the involvement of today’s young and just hang out with colleagues who have people is non-negotiable. become friends and family. By the year 2050, today’s youth will be

One of my favorite sessions during the within the average age of CEOs, farmers, conference was the Young Board panel tenured professors, as well as policy makers discussion which was done in collaboration worldwide. This means that today’s young with the Next Generation Ag Impact Network people will be at the helm of affairs tomorrow. (NGIN). The theme of that discussion was the Youth must be mainstreamed into the global imperative of youth-based coalitions for the agri-food system’s leadership and decision- EDEOBA EDOBOR achievement of the sustainable development making process to build the requisite capacity Chair, IFAMA Young Boardgoals (SDGS). By the end of the first half of for the future. Young people today are Purdue University, Indianathis century, it is expected that the world’s going to be most affected in the future by population may be upwards of 9.5 billion the decisions that are being made today. A people, with most of this population surge second reason to involve young people in the agricultural transformation agenda is that there are lots of competing career interests for today’s youth which may detract from the important field of agriculture. A century ago, most employment was either agricultural or agro-allied: that is not today’s story. There are a lot of non agro-allied career options in which young people can be involved. While interdisciplinary engagement is critical, the need to engage young professionals in the field of agriculture is very important. This is why youth-based organizations like the IFAMA Young Board are very important to create a space for young people who are in the sector, and to develop programs that can stimulate interest in, and conversations around, agriculture and food systems.