WORKING WITH YOUNG PEOPLE & UNIVERSITIES
TO
|
 |
Nicholas Parkinson
Mwanahamisi Niome Somah, 20, tends a cassava plant during the rainy season at a school garden in Grand Bassa County, Liberia.
|
|
The future of food security depends on the next generation of leaders in agriculture and nutrition. In Feed the Future focus countries and across the developing world, where people under the age of 25 often make up more than half the population, young people's progress and opportunities for quality education and employment are critical to sustainably reduce poverty and hunger.
The challenges that rural young people face in engaging in agriculture are precisely the ones that Feed the Future aims to address: improving access to land, credit, markets and agricultural technologies; building the knowledge and skills needed for employment or entrepreneurship in the agriculture sector; and creating an enabling environment for local agribusiness where prices are transparent and food production and processing can be profitable.
Among our most important partners in this effort are universities in the United States and around the world. Universities have informed U.S. Government investments in global food security and nutrition since Feed the Future's inception, and today, with support from the initiative, they are delivering critical innovations in the fight against hunger and equipping a new generation of researchers, entrepreneurs, policymakers and other agents of change to lead that fight in the years to come.
Read on to learn how Feed the Future is working with young people and universities to drive a bright future of inclusive growth and opportunity in agriculture.
|
 |
U.S. Universities Step Up to Fight Hunger
 |
Brenda Dawson, Horticulture Innovation Lab
|
Meet the talented students and researchers who are working with universities in California, Georgia, Colorado, Virginia and Massachusetts to sustainably build a more food-secure future. Read more.
|
Young African Leaders Drive Opportunity and
Food Security
 |
EAS
Emmanuel Hamaro leads the Iringa-based pig farm Epinav Agricultural Solutions in Tanzania.
|
In support of Feed the Future's goal to drive agriculture-led development and food security, the U.S. African Development Foundation awarded 36 Mandela Washington Fellows $25,000 entrepreneurship grants to expand or launch new ventures, many of which are creating jobs, providing training for youth and expanding affordable food supplies in the Fellows' home countries. Hamaro plans to use the grant he received to help grow his region's small-scale piggery industry. Read more.
|
 |
Cochran Fellows Utilize Technology to Expand Knowledge of Herd Management and Breeding Techniques
 |
USDA
Cochran Fellows have the opportunity to visit agricultural sites in the United States and get hands-on training in their area of work.
|
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Foreign Agricultural Service Cochran Fellowship Program developed a project to improve herd management and breeding techniques through an intensive training period with six Fellows from Feed the Future focus countries Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. Read more.
|
Peace Corps Volunteers Inspire Ethiopian
Youth to Think Creatively to Tackle
Environmental Challenges
 |
Peace Corps
Peace Corps Volunteer Lauren Mazza and campers measure a tree with a bamboo Biltmore Stick.
|
Peace Corps Volunteers are engaging Ethiopian youth to develop creative and innovative solutions to Ethiopia's most pressing environmental issues by organizing the region's first Growing and Renewing our World camp. Read more.
|
In Diplomacy Lab, University Students Team with State Department to Tackle Global Food Insecurity
As part of the Department of State's Diplomacy Lab project, which aims to foster creativity and outside-the-box problem solving, university students have the opportunity to explore and tackle real-world challenges, working under the guidance of faculty members who are authorities in their fields to develop substantive policy recommendations.
Read more.
|
Growing a New Crop of "Agropreneurs" in Kenya
 |
Amunga Eshuchi/USAID
Feed the Future works with groups in Kenya to guide them toward successful horticultural entrepreneurship.
|
David Rotich was an emerging businessman struggling to earn income working in Kenya's service industry. He made just enough to get by and support his young family, but his restaurant business required grueling hours. Today, Rotich earns a better monthly income growing seedlings than he did in his restaurant business. Read more.
|
Meet the Experts: Giving Youth a Leg Up in Malawi's Dairy Sector
 |
MDFA
The Mpoto Dairy Association in northern Malawi will participate in Bettie Kawonga's (far right) project for young dairy entrepreneurs.
|
Meet Bettie Kawonga, an expert in dairy science and technology who is working to establish a network of Community Business Incubation Centers in Malawi, which will enable under-employed Malawian youth to become successful entrepreneurs in Malawi's dairy sector. Read more.
|
Teaching the Skills for Innovation in Agriculture
 |
Erin McGuire/UC-Davis
Instructor Jorge Espinosa demonstrates how to recycle an old saw blade with college students at the Zamorano Panamerican Agricultural School for a D-Lab project in Honduras.
|
How do you teach innovation? A partnership under Feed the Future is empowering university students to solve real-world agricultural problems while learning the nuts and bolts of how to innovate. Read more.
|
Emerging Tanzanian Leaders Address Food Security Challenges
 |
iAGRI
Kadeghe Fue demonstrates to his academic advisers how he can wirelessly program and collect data from his automated drip irrigation system.
|
Drip irrigation is rare in Tanzania, but Fue envisions a future where the technology will help smallholder farmers across the country grow profitable crops even without the benefit of regular rainfall. Read more.
|
Feed the Future Helps Ugandan Youth Explore Opportunities in Agriculture
 |
USAID
Ugandan youth learn about agricultural mechanization.
|
Through its Feed the Future activities in Uganda, the U.S. Agency for International Development organized a national youth agriculture event in September 2014 called "Youth and Agriculture: Exploiting Opportunities - Go for Gold." The three-day event exposed youth to a variety of food and agriculture-related opportunities and promoted peer-to-peer engagement. Read more.
|
U.S. Farmers and Technical Experts Support the Next Generation of Agricultural Leaders
 |
CMES
Farmer-to-Farmer volunteer Dan Miller works with an NGO in Bangladesh.
|
More than 16,000 volunteer assignments - completed by U.S. farmers and other technical experts from all 50 states - have benefited approximately one million farming families in over 110 countries, representing over $31 million worth of volunteer time contributions to development in the last five-year program alone. Read more.
|
 |
New Voices in Food Security and Nutrition
 |
The Aspen Institute
Jensi Sartin is the Indonesia director for the Reef Check Foundation, which documents the health of Indonesia's numerous coral reefs and devises community-based strategies to protect them.
|
Last week, Feed the Future caught up with the 2014 class of The Aspen Institute's New Voices Fellowship, designed to bring more expert voices from the developing world into the global development discussion. Find out what this year's class of Fellows had to say about youth in food security and much more! Read more.
|
Farm to Cup 2014: University Students Probe the Economics of Coffee in Rwanda
 |
USAID
|
In May 2014, a team of students from Washington State University and Michigan State University traveled to Kigali, Rwanda to work with students from the University of Rwanda on a research project addressing pressing questions in Rwanda's coffee sector. Read more.
|
Fostering New Leaders in African Agriculture
 |
Africa Lead
Through a Feed the Future leadership program, Africanfarmer (left) was motivated to rebuild his agribusiness to appeal to rural youth.
|
Afioluwa Mogaji is so passionate about the agriculture sector that he changed his name to Africanfarmer. He saw firsthand how, without the incentives, infrastructure and support systems to help communities be more resilient to crises, youth in the suburbs and rural agrarian communities often view agriculture as a risky undertaking. Read more.
|
 |
Malian Students Pursue Advanced Agricultural Science Degrees with Support from
Feed the Future
 |
U.S. Embassy in Mali
U.S. Ambassador to Mali Mary Beth Leonard (center) meets with agricultural science students supported under Feed the Future.
|
Sixteen agricultural science students from Mali are set to embark on a program sponsored by the U.S. Government under the Feed the Future initiative and designed to strengthen the agricultural research capacity of Malian institutions. The students will first study intensive English for six months before pursuing Masters and PhD-level degrees in various agricultural fields at African higher education institutions in Kenya, Ghana and South Africa. Read more.
|
 |
Promoting Agribusiness Opportunities for
Youth in Armenia
 |
Agribusiness Teaching Center
Agribusiness students visit a tomato greenhouse.
|
Armenia's International Center for Agribusiness Research and Education is working to increase entry-level employment opportunities through its Agribusiness Teaching Center. Read more.
|
Call for Applicants: Global Food Security Next Generation Delegation
|
UPCOMIN G EVENTS
|
-
November 24, 2014 (Washington, DC)
-
December 1-12, 2014 (Lima, Peru)
-
December 11, 2014 (Washington, DC)
|
NEWS & MEDIA
|
Ne ws
|
November 15, 2014 (The Economist)
November 13, 2014 (IFPRI) November 12, 2014, Lenny Bernstein (Washington Post) November 11, 2014, Mark Landler (New York Times)
|
Opinion & Blogs |
November 14, 2014, Dan Glickman (The Hill)
November 12, 2014 (New York Times)
November 11, 2014, Lawrence Haddad (Huffington Post)
|
Videos
|
November 12, 2014, Michael Pollan (New York Times)
|
ABOUT T HIS NEWSLETTER
|
This newsletter is intended to enhance collaboration and information-sharing
about implementation of Feed the Future. To subscribe or to find out more
|
|