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Niger suffers deadliest raids by suspected jihadists

BBC Africa - Tue, 03/23/2021 - 13:58
The death toll from co-ordinated attacks on three villages rises to 137 - the worst of its kind.
Categories: Africa

Europe halfway towards closing all coal power plants by 2030

Euractiv.com - Tue, 03/23/2021 - 13:52
Half of Europe's 324 coal-fuelled power plants have either closed or announced a retirement date before 2030, it emerged on Monday (22 March) when French power utility EDF announced the 162nd plant will close in 2022.
Categories: European Union

Tech Savvy Youth with High Social-Emotional Skills Succeed in Agriculture – Study Shows

Africa - INTER PRESS SERVICE - Tue, 03/23/2021 - 13:45

New research suggests that socio-emotional and digital skills are linked to the increased agribusiness skills of youth. Photo: CC by 2.0/iHub

By Abdulrahman Olagunju
IBADAAN, Nigeria, Mar 23 2021 (IPS)

Saheed Babajide, a young animal production graduate and a manager at a national milk production company in Iseyin, Nigeria, is a beneficiary of the government’s youth agriculture intervention programme. But he feels he received almost no training during the three years he participated. 

“We thought we will go through rigorous trainings in our various fields in agriculture, but to our surprise we were just given a training manual merely containing little or nothing about specific agricultural training as a training guide throughout the three years of engagement,” says Babajide of his time during the “N-power AGRO programme”.

The “N-power AGRO programme” was launched in 2016 as a national social investment programme designed to create jobs and empower Nigerians aged 18 to 35.

“Relatively no training was given about our fields, talk less of trainings on critical skills needed to thrive in the 21st Century [such as digital skill and socio-emotional skills]. After our first meeting, many people left to continue their hustle and bustle while they receive their salaries,” he added.

The government pays participating youths salaries during their training. But because of the poor monitoring system, those beneficiaries who left their place of assignment before the programme ended still received these salaries. Babajide admitted that the same happened when he left his place of assignment before the programme ended.

Nigeria, with over 200 million people, is Africa’s most populous country with the continent’s largest youth population. And about 34 percent of its total population is in need of employment.

But to Nteranya Sanginga, Director General of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), developing agriculture is key to addressing the urgent challenges of food insecurity, poverty and youth unemployment on the continent.

“Developing agriculture is key to addressing these challenges. Youth brings energy and innovation to the mix, but these qualities can be best channelled by young Africans themselves carrying out results-based research in agribusiness and rural development involving young people. Youth engagement is key,” Sanginga said in an opinion editorial.  

According to Nigerian Bureau of Statistics(NBS) Q2 report 2020, “about 55.4 percent of the employable youths are still unemployed”. It is uncertain how  the COVID-19 pandemic affects these figures.

While the government has set up various initiatives to address the issue of unemployment and food security, one study into the N-power AGRO programme showed that over the years the impact or performance of the programme was minimal.

Dr Khadijat Amolegbe, a lecturer at Department of Agricultural Economics and Farm Management, University of Ilorin, Nigeria, conducted a study into another government programme exploring the skills needed to motivate youth to participate in the agricultural sector.

Amolegbe conducted a randomised controlled experiment on Nigerian youth enrolled in the National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) — a programme set up by the Nigerian government in 1973 to involve graduates in nation building and development. She measured the youth’s motivation to engage in the agricultural sector by evaluating the following;

  • their intention to start an agribusiness venture;
  • their intention to register a business name; and
  • their intention to save towards starting an agribusiness venture.

Amolegbe is a an awardee of the Enhancing Capacity to Apply Research Evidence (CARE) In Policy for Youth Engagement in Agribusiness and Rural Economic Activities in Africa project, funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), and implemented by IITA.

Amolegbe’s IITA-CARE study revealed that the youth need training beyond basic agricultural skills. According to the research study, “socio-emotional and digital skills, also known as the 21st Century skills are indispensable, not only to motivate youths into agriculture but also help them thrive and survive the new and emerging challenges”.

“We realised that efforts made to motivate youths to participate in the agricultural sector have not yielded tangible results because they focus on basic agribusiness skills. However, youths need other skills that can help them strive the new and emerging challenges because of the risks and uncertainties in the agricultural sector and the changing nature of work around the world,” Amolegbe told IPS.

Sami Hassan is a recent graduate who is currently part of the NYSC. During the service year, graduates are engaged in various programmes designed to facilitate self-reliance among youth and to reduce unemployment.

“We were introduced to the basic skills involved in any field of our choice, but we’re expected to go into the nitty gritty of the technical skill ourselves,” Hassan said. He explained that while digital skills was offered as a course, its application in specific fields such as agriculture were not expanded upon. 

Amolegbe told IPS that although the effect of digital skills in motivating youth engagement in agriculture is still ambiguous, youth with high socio-emotional and digital skills have high agribusiness test scores. This, she said, suggests that socio-emotional and digital skills are linked to increased agribusiness skills.

“With basic knowledge of agribusiness, individuals that receive socio-emotional skills training have positive significant probability of engaging in the agricultural sector than individuals that have receive both socio-emotional skills and digital skills training,” she said.

Among other recommendations, Amolegbe suggested that socio-emotional and digital skills training should be included in interventions targeted at motivating youth to participate in the agricultural sector.

“This will stimulate innovation, increase productivity and also help them prepare to counter the new and emerging challenges along the agricultural value chain,” she added.

The IFAD-sponsored study, which is part of several others carried out by young researchers under the CARE project in 10 countries across Africa, proposed that there should be an investment in digitalising the agricultural sector in Nigeria to enable youth with digital skills engage the sector.

“Input supplies should go beyond basic inputs like seeds and fertilisers, we should also encourage the use of digital tools across the agricultural value chain,” Amolegbe added.

Veronica Valentine, the Executive Director of FarmAgric Foundation, a non-governmental organisation that seeks to empower farmers and efficiently equip them with all the necessary tools to thrive in an evolving society, said the findings from the study gave a great insight into the challenges the youth have entering agriculture.

“Although our training modules at FarmAgric (which we give young farmers) are designed to sort of accommodate digital skills in order to help them in their agribusiness, especially in a digitalised world of today, we find the study very useful and hope government could implement this into their training modules in order to meet the demands of young people looking forward to venture into agriculture,” she said.

 


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The post Tech Savvy Youth with High Social-Emotional Skills Succeed in Agriculture – Study Shows appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Categories: Africa

Accord sur le Fatca: Le fisc US veut les données de clients de 29 banques suisses

24heures.ch - Tue, 03/23/2021 - 13:40
Les données des clients de grandes banques helvétiques comme UBS, Credit Suisse mais aussi Julius Bär, J. Safra Sarasin ou Lombard Odier & Cie intéressent l’administration américaine.
Categories: Swiss News

EU chance for ‘Brussels moment’ on human rights reporting, says leading lawmaker

Euractiv.com - Tue, 03/23/2021 - 13:37
The European Commission is set to propose legislation making it compulsory for companies to ensure that their supply chains are free of human rights and environmental abuse and corruption. And the direction of the debate among national and EU lawmakers, and among companies, is only going one way, says MEP Heidi Hautala.
Categories: European Union

L’agriculture espagnole face aux opportunités et aux menaces du Green deal européen

Euractiv.fr - Tue, 03/23/2021 - 13:33
Les stratégies de la Commission européenne destinées à promouvoir une politique alimentaire plus durable - dans le cadre du Green deal européen - ont mis en alerte l'agriculture espagnole, qui y voit des opportunités, mais également des menaces. Un article d’Efeagro.
Categories: Union européenne

France 5 consacre un film-documentaire à la chute de Bouteflika

Algérie 360 - Tue, 03/23/2021 - 13:26

La chute de l’ancien président algérien Abdelaziz Bouteflika, qui a gouverné le pays pour presque deux décennies, un certain 2 avril 2019 fait encore parler d’elle. Un documentaire inédit y a été consacré par la chaine française France 5. La diffusion de ce reportage de 90 minutes aura lieu le 28 mars en cours, soit […]

L’article France 5 consacre un film-documentaire à la chute de Bouteflika est apparu en premier sur .

Categories: Afrique

Making batteries sustainable, rights for drivers, and the European Year of Aviation?

Euractiv.com - Tue, 03/23/2021 - 13:20
Welcome to EURACTIV’s weekly Transport Brief – your one port of call for all the news moving the world and much more!
Categories: European Union

Clint Eastwood új filmjét októberben mutatják be

Bumm.sk (Szlovákia/Felvidék) - Tue, 03/23/2021 - 13:15
Clint Eastwood Cry Macho című új filmjét októberben mutatják be Észak-Amerikában a mozik - jelentette be a Warner Bros. filmstúdió.

Létrehozza az MKP, a Híd és az Összefogás a SZÖVETSÉGET

Bumm.sk (Szlovákia/Felvidék) - Tue, 03/23/2021 - 13:10
Az MKP, a Híd párt és az Összefogás közös sajtótájékoztatója.

Egy képviselő íróasztalán szexeltek az ausztrál parlament alkalmazottai

Bumm.sk (Szlovákia/Felvidék) - Tue, 03/23/2021 - 12:57
Egy képviselő íróasztalán és a parlament imatermében is szexeltek az ausztrál parlament különböző alkalmazottai. Állítólag többször prostituáltakat is hívtak a parlamentbe.

Für Spanien bietet der Green Deal „Chancen und Gefahren”

Euractiv.de - Tue, 03/23/2021 - 12:56
Der europäische Green Deal bietet Chancen und Herausforderungen für spanische Landwirte. Interessenvertreter warnen, dass die Branche wohl mehr Unterstützung beim Übergang zu einem nachhaltigeren Landwirtschaftsmodell benötigt.
Categories: Europäische Union

EU adopts €5billion fund to train and equip foreign military forces

Euractiv.com - Tue, 03/23/2021 - 12:52
Despite criticism from European lawmakers and advocacy groups, the EU adopted the €5 billion worth French-brokered European Peace Facility (EPF) on Monday (22 March), which will open the door for the bloc to deliver military aid to partner countries and...
Categories: European Union

Turquie : Josep Borrell propose de manier « la carotte et le bâton »

Euractiv.fr - Tue, 03/23/2021 - 12:44
Dialoguer ou se distancer  ? La Turquie devra choisir, a indiqué le chef de la diplomatie européenne dans son rapport sur la Turquie, qui devrait faire l’objet de discussions plus tard de la semaine lors du sommet européen.
Categories: Union européenne

Europäischer Wiederaufbau: Die Jugend bleibt außen vor

Euractiv.de - Tue, 03/23/2021 - 12:36
Während sie die am stärksten von der durch das Coronavirus ausgelösten Wirtschaftskrise betroffene Gruppe sind, fühlen sich junge Europäerinnen und Europäer in den Recovery-Plänen zunehmend übergangen.
Categories: Europäische Union

Csehországban meghaladta a 25 ezret a járvány áldozatainak a száma

Bumm.sk (Szlovákia/Felvidék) - Tue, 03/23/2021 - 12:35
Csehországban az egy éve tartó koronavírus-járvány halálos áldozatainak a száma hétfőn túllépte a 25 ezret, a kór ellen beoltottak száma pedig az egymilliót - derül ki az egészségügyi minisztérium honlapján kedden nyilvánosságra hozott statisztikai adatokból.

Maroc : le roi Mohammed VI fait le ménage

Afrik.com - Tue, 03/23/2021 - 12:33

Le roi Mohammed VI a procédé à une série de fortes nominations depuis le palais de Fès. Cour des comptes, Conseil de la concurrence, CSPJ et Ministère public sont concernés. Le Souverain chérifien a ainsi reçu Mohamed Abdennabaoui, nommé Premier président de la Cour de cassation, président délégué du Conseil supérieur du pouvoir judiciaire (CSPJ). […]

L’article Maroc : le roi Mohammed VI fait le ménage est apparu en premier sur Afrik.com.

Categories: Afrique

Carnet de vaccination électronique: Le site mesvaccins.ch est dans le collimateur des autorités

24heures.ch - Tue, 03/23/2021 - 12:33
Une procédure pour violations de la protection des données a été ouverte contre l’exploitant de la plateforme www.mesvaccins.ch, qui proposait un carnet de vaccination électronique.
Categories: Swiss News

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