IITA News

Picture of Two COPAKIN agripreneurs showcasing 25-kg bags of high quality semolina.

Youth cooperative sets pace in processing and marketing cornmeal in DRC

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, agribusiness is currently one of the drivers of job creation for young people and for the fight against food insecurity.

Youth Agripreneurs: Agriculture is a goldmine

For Ibukunoluwa Agbotoba and Zaccheaus Izuwa, agriculture–which used to be seen as a job for the less privileged–is a goldmine that has the capacity to pay their bills and give other youth the opportunity of earning a decent living.

Picture of Agripreneurs from all IITA hubs talk about their activities in Africa.

Youth Agripreneurs program forging ahead to change youth mindsets to agriculture in Africa

On the second day of P4D Week, youth Agripreneurs presented on their various activities. The presentations were started off by the leader of the Youth Agripreneurs at IITA, Evelyn Ohanwusi. She said the initial vision of the program was to support youth at the individual level by moving incomes from 0 to $700 a month…

Youth Agripreneurs day out at Fasola Grammar School

The Start Them Early Program (STEP), which operates under the IITA Youth in Agribusiness office, focuses on how to advance agribusiness development to secondary schools in Africa. It aims at redirecting the aspirations of young people in secondary schools towards careers in modern agriculture by exposing them to viable opportunities in agribusiness at an early…

Youth Agripreneur insists beans can be preserved naturally without using Sniper

Bose Idowu graduated from the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB) with a BSc in Animal Science and an MBA in Agribusiness. She joined the IITA Youth Agripreneurs (IYA) program in 2012 as part of the Cereals and Legumes team, where she was trained in cultivation and farm management on farms in northern Nigeria. “We…

Picture of CNL General Manager Deji Haastrup with IITA Youth Agripreneurs.

Youth Agricultural Program launched in Delta State

On 11 February, Chevron Nigeria Limited (CNL), operator of the joint venture (JV) between the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and CNL, launched a youth-in-agriculture (Agripreneur) program, aimed at providing training opportunities for young men and women to venture into agribusiness. CNL launched the Agripreneur program in collaboration with IITA, the Itsekiri Regional Development Committee…

Picture of Two youth involved in agribusiness in Kamu, Bulambuli District, on the slopes of Mt. Elgon.

Youth agribusiness in Uganda: The importance of engaging youth in agricultural enterprises

Maya Turolla, a PhD candidate at the University of Bologna and Radboud University in Nijmegen, collaborated with IITA in Uganda to study how the drive to engage youth in agriculture is materializing in terms of development projects and the role these projects play in the lives of these youth.

Youth — the future of global food supply

Ensuring the provision of sufficient nutritious food to a growing population in the face of climate change is a major challenge facing the global community. With the world population expected to exceed 9 billion by 2050, driven largely by growth in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, solutions must be found for guaranteeing food and nutrition…

Young Africa Works-IITA Project trains over a thousand youth in three centers across Nigeria

The Young Africa Works-IITA Project has concluded the first cohort of its training program, which commenced on 1 February in Lagos, Kaduna, and Kano states. The six-week training program targeted young people between 18 and 35 years. It introduced the participants to agribusiness through classroom training, practical sessions, excursions to successful agribusiness firms, mentorship, sharing…

Young Africa Works-IITA commences multilocation training for 40,000 youth

The Young Africa Works-IITA project commenced the first cohort of its training program in Lagos, Kaduna, and Kano states in Nigeria. This capacity–building activity began on 1 February and focuses on training 40,000 young Nigerian women and men between 18 and 35 years to become self-employed or gain employment in agri-food systems. The training is running concurrently in the three states for six weeks and participants will gain practical…