Coffee value chain players have vowed to fast-track receptive initiatives geared towards enticing the youth into coffee farming.
The actors opined that the young need to be involved in the entire chain –production, processing, value addition, and marketing as part exploiting the untapped potential.
Speaking on Wednesday during a coffee power breakfast talk on coffee production and involvement of the youth, Mr. Eduardo Sampaio, a prominent coffee expert and UTZ Field Representative in Brazil, said, although it has been a challenge all over the world, they need to be introduced to business models with a lot of IT and Technology so that they can be retained in the business.
“We have to make them understand that it is a viable and profitable business”, he said.
Sampaio said retaining the youth at farm level with good quality standards and a good pack of technology to attract those in the rural areas would be the best framework and approach that local governments can exploit.
“The future consumption trend is what is dictating the need to introduce young people in coffee farming. Thus we have to tap into their imagination by fast-tracking key drivers –quality, improved varieties and adoption of modern technology,” he said.
Farmers he observed ought not to inherit land from their families but can lease and apply good agricultural practices to produce enough volumes for the local and international market.
“Equally youth need to form strong cooperative societies to benefit from the economies of scale,” Sampaio said.
There has been a concern in the coffee subsector as the average age of a farm stand at about 60 years. Equally, enticing youth will help in taming rural-urban migration that has led to young people to move to urban areas to look for jobs.