Review of research and practice for youth engagement in agricultural education and training systems

The youth crisis has recently received much attention from the global community, particularly in how it intersects with the future of agriculture. Causes of the youth crisis include univeral youth disinterest in agriculture, deskilled youth populations, lack of access to resources, gender disparity and lack of reliable data regarding youth in agriculture.

Agricultural education and training (AET) models and initiatives have a unique opportunity in the nexus of the youth crisis and food security to deploy effective best practices to reengage youth in the agricultural sector. AET can address these challenges and work to ensure a future stable and employed youth population by the following steps that are targeted directly for agriculture education and training initiatives, programming and policy: 1) taking an integrated approach; 2) gathering more data on determinants, proximate causes and effects, disaggregated by sub-population, locality and region; 3) increasing access to resources available to youth; 4) facilitating soft skill development for youth; 5) increasing youth awareness of opportunities within and knowledge of the agricultural sector and (6) addressing gender disparity within the agricultural sector.