This document discusses youth engagement in agriculture in the Greater Mekong Sub-region and potential solutions. It notes that the exodus of rural youth is a crisis, as young people leave villages for cities. However, the region has a demographic opportunity if youth can be engaged productively. Examples from different countries show youth training programs, business support, and financing can help young people start agricultural businesses. Overall, the document argues for innovative programs that provide youth meaningful roles in developing sustainable and climate-friendly value chains, to address youth unemployment and help rural communities retain young residents.

1. Youth engagement in GMS agriculture: challenges,
opportunities and potential solutions
Andrew Bartlett, Team Leader and Policy Adviser
Lao Upland Rural Advisory Service (LURAS)
GMS Working Group on Agriculture,
19th Annual Meeting, HCM City, 21-23 June 2022

2. Introduction - the youth exodus
 Rural youth have a crucial role to
play in determining the future of
our food systems
 The exodus of young people
from rural areas is a crisis for
hundreds of thousands of
villages across the Greater
Mekong Sub-region.
 We need to engage with young
women and men in the
development of safe and
climate-friendly value chains that
will provide them with food,
jobs, and income.
FAO, 2016
negative impacts of youth migration
on rural areas of origin

3. Demographic dividend
 The demographic dividend in the GMS is a window of opportunity
that will not remain open much longer.
 Falling fertility rates produce an economic dividend, but high youth
unemployment means a risk of “getting old before we get rich”
 We need to ensure that 75 million or so young people living in GMS
countries become more productive in the next few years.
Demographic dividend

4. Youth engagement
 Todays panellists include representatives of
innovative schemes for young people in
Cambodia, China, Thailand and Vietnam.
 We will be hearing about their engagement
with training, networking, online marketing,
business incubators and the production of
high-value organic produce.
 These are all examples of Meaningful Youth
Engagement (MYE)
 MYE involves partnerships with youth that
enable them to take greater control of their
lives in a manner than generates a range of
social and economic benefits.
1. Youth Diversity and
Representation
2. Youth – Enabling
Environment
3. Youth – Adult
Partnerships
4. Youth Participation
5. Youth Empowerment
Plan International, 2021
5 Pillars of MYE

5. The AGREE Scheme in Lao PDR
 AGREE = Agripreneurs for a Green
Rural Economy and Employment
 The AGREE scheme involves a
sequence of 4 types of activities:
 technical training or internships, with an
emphasis on innovation
 business planning and proposal-writing
workshops
 provision of start-up grants for individual
micro-enterprises
 networking and coaching among the
participants of the scheme.
 The scheme has good return on
investment. Young people earning
more than their grant in 2 years

6. Skills training and advisory services
 Farming is a business, and
all businesses need skills,
finance and access to
markets.
 Young smart farmers need
smart vocational training,
with smart curricula and
smart instructors.
 This doesn’t always need
professionally qualified
instructors; peer learning
schemes involving youth
networks are also possible.

7. Micro-finance
 Rural youth are already active within the digital payment ecosystem.
 Institutional arrangements to get credit for SMSEs flowing to small
farmers and micro-enterprises remains weak.
 This needs to change if innovation and entrepreneurship in the
sector are to become more widespread.

8. Land use
 Many young people are unable to get access to land to manage
their own farm.
 The establishment of agribusiness zones for rural young small
producers is something to consider.
 This could take the form of an incubation centre and plots that can
be leased either by groups or individuals.

9. Decent Work
 While promoting
empowerment and innovation
is important, the fact remains
that many young people are
involved in 3D jobs: dirty,
dangerous and demeaning
 This is a major reason why
they want to leave the sector.
 Decent work and better
protection for young labourers
are needed to make
agricultural jobs more
attractive.

10. Scenarios for the next generation
Grey Villages Brown Villages Green Villages
Out-migration by
young people results in
an ageing rural
population, with no
innovation and low
productivity
Investment in
industrial scale
agribusiness provide
cash incomes in rural
areas, and people stay
in villages
Farmer groups and
SMEs engaged in
‘green’ production and
processing, creating
attractive new
livelihoods
Youth become urban
workers and
consumers
Youth become labour
force for the global
food industry
Youth become pioneers
for rural community
development
Which scenario is most likely to happen across the GMS?

11. Thank You
Andrew Bartlett, Team Leader and Policy Adviser
Lao Upland Rural Advisory Service (LURAS)