“There are few better ways to show one’s love for one’s country and the well-being of one’s nation than by working on the soil.”
– Nelson Mandela
Here in this article, we will talk about Africa and its agriculture sector, which remained neglected for decades. Of late, African governments seem to have woken up to the need of promoting their agriculture and create better skilled workforce. However, before we delve deep into this matter, let’s familiarize ours with what the Africa’s agriculture sector entails.
About 65% of Africa’s labour force is employed in the agriculture sector; however, the sector has still been underdeveloped and accounts for about 32% of GDP, owing to low productivity. Here are a few more figures for you:
- Africa has 60% of the world’s arable land
- By 2030, agriculture sector in Africa would be $1 trillion strong
- Agriculture sector to create 16 million jobs by 2030
These figures clearly indicate the huge potential that the sector holds. Seeing the opportunities that are waiting to be tapped, several end-to-end training companies have entered the agriculture space. And these companies are impacting the entire agriculture value chain in Africa with their end-to-end learning solutions, which include programs like agriculture sales training in Kenya that impact the productivity of the farm agents and seed distributors. Apart from agriculture sales training, there are many more programs that have been recently devised to boost the commercial agriculture in the African countries.
Apart from agriculture sales training in Kenya, learning companies have developed a number of other programs as well to boost development in the agriculture sector. The programs are intended to skill the manpower and make them productive in different areas of agriculture sector. Skilled manpower is likely to be more productive and easy-learners. And the best thing is they can be put to work right away.
Governments in various African countries are introducing new policies and programs to promote the sector and create skilled manpower. The governments have understood that agriculture training and education, such as agriculture sales training in Kenya, have a direct impact on agricultural productivity and on the performance of ancillary businesses and trade. The keys to the desired growth in the commercial agriculture lie in production for market, diversification in crops and cropping patterns, and usage of mobile telephony/ICT.
Agriculture has the potential to change the very economic face of Africa. Only if the governments of African countries can keep up with their agriculture-friendly policies and schemes, the sector will see immense growth and creation of millions of new jobs.