More African young people must venture into agriculture to maintain sufficient food security, according to South Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa.
“With the support of African Development Bank for instance, young urban farmers in Nigeria, Uganda and Democratic Republic of Congo are running business focused on climate, smart agriculture and are using new technologies for stainable food production,” he said.
“Similar projects to support food security by bringing young people into agriculture are under way in Zambia through the YAPASA programme, in South Africa through the presidential employment programme and stimulus programme.”
Mr Ramaphosa was speaking at the first Nelson Mandela Youth Dialogue with young African leaders at the Walter Sisulu University’s Zamukulungisa campus in Mthatha in the Eastern Cape.
He went on: “We see the Nelson Mandela Youth Dialogue as a collective that brings together the builders of a new Africa.
“As young people, you are the next generation, the innovators, the change-makers and the agents of progress.
“It was President Mandela who offered the finest description. Sometimes it falls upon a generation to be great. You can be that generation. Let your greatness blossom.
“He called young people ‘the rock on which our future will be built, our greatest asset as a nation’.
“He said: ‘They will be the leaders of our country, the creators of our national wealth, and those who care for and protect our people’.
“He saw young people as the builders of a better Africa and a better world.”
The Nelson Mandela Dialogue is an engagement between young Africans on the most critical and pressing issues, such as youth unemployment, African trade and economic integration, entrepreneurship, sus-tainable development, climate change and good governance.
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