A first group of six South African youth has successfully completed four month agricultural training programme at city-headquartered International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT).
The initiative, with support from the South African government, is an effort to give youth from the region more opportunities in the agricultural sector, ICRISAT said in a statement.
It comes at a time when the South African government has emphasised agriculture as a priority for the country's economic development. These trainees have made agriculture their key to fight issues like unemployment and poverty, it said.
"Today's youth aren't aware of all the potentials there are in agriculture. It is not just limited to farming in fields, there are a host of opportunities like agribusiness, where youth can engage themselves in," Lilly Thato Mabonela, one of the South African students, was quoted as saying.
She hopes to empower and engage more youth in her country in agricultural ventures that she plans to set-up after she returns to South Africa.
She wants the government and other organisations to do more to attract youth towards agriculture, like conduct awareness workshops in schools and colleges and offer free education to the disadvantaged youth of India and Africa.
