While the global population is younger than ever, the world’s farmers are greying, with at an average age of about 60 according to the FAO. Engaging youth populations in agricultural systems is therefore not just an opportunity but an imperative to meeting future global food security needs, not to mention the economic aspirations of the younger generations.

This month, Agrilinks is highlighting resources on this important topic and invites the Agrilinks community to share their own successes and challenges working with youth across the globe.

In the meantime, we’d like to share some go-to materials on the topic from the archives, including:

• The Positive Youth Development (PYD) Measurement toolkit, recently published by USAID, provides a step-by-step guide and framework to evaluate the impact of PYD initiatives.
• An FAO report shares key challenges and concrete solutions to youth in agriculture, including limited access to land, markets, technology and capital and other resources with case studies from across the globe.
• This post shares lessons learned on incorporating PYD into agricultural education programs in Senegal.
• A brief and white paper from the InnoVATE program explores how secondary agricultural education can be used to engage youth in “agripreneurship” opportunities, including success stories from various contexts. These resources also tackle issues the gender disparities that persist and ideally should be addressed early on to enable both youth men and women to fully unlock their potential in agriculture and beyond.
• This post shares highlights from Mercy Corps’ strategy on youth and agriculture, which builds on three pillars for success.
• This blog post provides important insights on what the ag sector needs to do to attract youth and satisfy not only their needs but also their hopes and dreams. This piece is based on research in four Feed the Future focus countries.

We look forward to your contributions this month and furthering the dialogue on youth and agriculture!