News

The West and Central African Council for Agricultural Research and Development (CORAF/WECARD), in collaboration with the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) officially launched the project " Capacity Building for Youth in Agricultural Entrepreneurship in West Africa " on June 23, 2016 in Dakar- Senegal.

This project aims to create entrepreneurial opportunities for 1,000 young people in agriculture to contribute to sustainable improvements in the productivity, competitiveness and markets of agricultural systems in the sub-region.

The launch ceremony featured the presentation of the virtual platform dedicated to mentoring and advisory support for young people in agricultural entrepreneurship, as well as a demonstration of the WEBTV implemented as part of the project. The official launch, which was broadcast live on the virtual platform, was viewed by over 300 young people.

In his speech, Dr Alioune FALL, Chairman of the Board of Directors, reminded us that youth employment is a shared problem for all African countries, which must rise to the challenge of professionalizing jobs linked to the agricultural sector and creating a favorable environment to stimulate agricultural entrepreneurship among young people.

The representative of the IDB's Regional Office, Mr. Abdel Wahab CHERIF, hailed the CORAF initiative, which he felt would ensure the effective and beneficial involvement of young people and their productive force in building a better future. " The IDB will continue to support the CORAF/WECARD initiative because we remain convinced that it is a means of ensuring better integration of technologies in the process of creating added value and wealth, in order to create more jobs for young people and have a positive impact on the agricultural sector and food security," asserted Abdel Wahab CHERIF.

For his part, Dr Abdou TENKOUANO, Executive Director of CORAF/WECARD, called on young people to make this platform their own. "This platform, whose vision is to stimulate the adoption of agricultural technologies and innovations, is intended as a lever for job creation for young people. A new dynamic for agricultural research that CORAF/WECARD wants to instill in the sub-region", asserted the Executive Director of CORAF/WECARD, before inviting donors to support the institution in scaling up this program in order to reduce the unemployment rate and build the capacities of young people in the economic principles of agri-food systems, from pre-production to marketing.

CORAF/WECARD's ambition remains the scaling-up and valorization of research results through the establishment of incubation centers for young agricultural entrepreneurs within these National Specialization Centers focusing on speculations such as livestock, aquaculture, fruits & vegetables, dry cereals, plantain, roots & tubers, corn and rice.

Throughout the project, the selected young agricultural entrepreneurs will benefit from mentoring and distance training sessions via a virtual platform of leading researchers and scientists on agricultural technologies generated under the West African Agricultural Productivity Program (WAAPP), as well as accomplished entrepreneurs from the private sector.