•"Agriculture in Africa needs these young people, and the young people should begin to see immense opportunities and benefits available in agriculture," the President said.
•Uhuru said the youth should explore opportunities in areas such as agricultural technologies.
President Uhuru Kenyatta on Thursday encouraged African youth to take agriculture saying the sector holds enormous potential to create jobs.
The President said the youth should explore opportunities in areas such as agricultural technologies, on and off farm ventures, aggregation, transportation of produce and value addition among others.
"Agriculture in Africa needs these young people, and the young people should begin to see immense opportunities and benefits available in agriculture," the President said.
He spoke during a virtual youth town hall meeting on the sidelines of this year’s Africa Green Revolution Forum Summit (AGRF) attended by young people from across the continent.
He encouraged players in Africa's agricultural sector to support the youth by creating an enabling environment for them to innovate solutions for identified sectoral challenges without imposing their preferences.
"We are here to listen to you and your ideas, to learn, to engage, and to receive the ideas that will guide the development of policies, programmes, and projects that better suit the aspirations of the sons and daughters of Africa," the President said.
Uhuru encouraged African Governments to listen more to the youth so as to be able to creative an enabling environment for young people to enter and thrive in the agricultural sector.
Through the 2018 to 2022 Kenya Youth Agri-business Strategy, the President said the Kenyan Government was progressively addressing the challenges and barriers that prevent the youth from fully participating in the country's agricultural sector.
"Some of these include: negative perception and attitude to agribusiness, limited access to financial services; inadequate skills, knowledge and information; limited access to land for agribusiness; limited access to markets; limited value addition; inadequate policies to support youth in agri-preneurship; climate change and environmental management, and other cross-cutting issues,” he outlined.
The President said his administration was keen on reversing the negative perception held by the country's youth towards agriculture through the revival of the 4-K-Clubs in all primary schools as well as the Young Farmers’ Clubs in secondary schools and tertiary institutions.
"The enthusiasm created by these clubs is encouraging young people to take advantage of agricultural opportunities, allowing them to become agribusiness owners, professionals, trainers, and mentors, along the value chains,” he said.
On Wednesday, Uhuru Kenyatta rallied African nations to accelerate efforts aimed at attaining greater food security on the continent.
The President said Kenya was committed to the agenda of transforming its food systems by re-engineering the country’s agriculture to leverage more on its large and vibrant youth population.
He spoke when he hosted this year's virtual African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) summit at State House, Nairobi.