Youth Seeding the New Era of Smart Farming

Youth in rural areas across Asia and the Pacific are suffering from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, smart farming, the process of integrating information and communications technologies (ICT) for tracking, monitoring, automating, and analyzing agricultural operations has the potential to drive economic growth for rural youth. The agricultural impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is highlighted by its manifestation as both a healthcare crisis and an economic crisis. Worldwide, there are approximately 1.2 billion individuals between the ages of 15-24, which is a quarter of the global population—the largest population of young people the world has ever known. The pandemic has served to exacerbate preexisting issues that many of these young men and women faced in relation to employment, demand-based skill training, and quality jobs. According to International Labor Organization (ILO) statistics, global youth unemployment stood at over 15% in 2019 and has increased in most countries due to the recent economic downturn. In the Asia and the Pacific region, youth unemployment is estimated at 14.1% in 2020. The youth labor market is highly sensitive to economic cycles and in times of economic crisis, youth employment is hit more strongly than adult employment.

Some of the hardest hit youth remain those that are in vulnerable or informal employment, marginalized communities, young women, and rural youth. In Asia and the Pacific, the majority of rural youth are employed in the informal economy, typically earn low wages and are subject to poor working conditions. Rural youth face obstacles related to education and training, access to information, markets and finance and decent work and the pandemic threatens to break the already scant social safety nets protecting them. Additionally, the impact of climate change, weather fluctuations, and food losses are posing significant challenges to the future of food supply. Leading young people to believe that farming and the agricultural sector is neither profitable nor rewarding for the labor put into the craft and resulting in an exodus of youth to urban areas, putting additional pressure on Asia’s sprawling cities.

COVID-19 has exposed risks in global food systems and highlighted the need for focused recovery measures targeting the agricultural sector and the young people that are critical stakeholders in building forward. However, central to these efforts with be the appropriate use of digital technology to build the resilience of farming communities, revitalize supply chains and secure farm-based livelihoods. To build back better, we need to engage young people in the development and implementation of digital technologies for smart farming practices. The opportunities to use data, platforms and innovations for improved access to reliable information, training, markets and finance, to manage climate risks, to improve productivity and profitability and vast and promise to seed a new era of youth-led smart agriculture.

 

Additional References:

United Nation: International Youth Day 10 Key Messages

ILO global report sheds light on the youth employment challenge in Asia-Pacific

FAO: Rural youth and the COVID-19 pandemic