Myriam Dago, Bachelor in International Development and Globalization, 4th year
Internship country: Ivory Coast
Canadian NGO: World University Service of Canada (WUSC)
Local NGO: World University Service of Canada (WUSC)
“Would you consider working in agriculture?”
The question seemed simple enough. I asked it to young people I met as part of my research on employability in the agricultural sector in Côte d’Ivoire. Before beginning my fieldwork, I expected many to answer no. After all, one of the explanations often cited when discussing the low participation of young people in agriculture is precisely their lack of interest in the sector.
However, the answers I heard were more nuanced: “Yes, why not?” “Yes, if I have the opportunity.” One young person trained in computer science even told me that after a period of unemployment, he had turned to raising rabbits, and then to growing tomatoes. What was the main thing holding him back from continuing? Financial resources.
This conversation, among others, prompted me to gradually rethink the way I was framing the issue. Perhaps the question wasn’t simply whether young people wanted to work in agriculture. We also had to ask: what conditions would actually allow them to build a future there?
Behind the Image of Agriculture
Through my conversations, I discovered that perceptions of agriculture do play an important role. When some young people heard the word “agriculture,” they immediately thought of working in the fields and physical labor. Many also pointed out that other career opportunities related to the sector were not well known.
This perception made me reflect on the way we talk about youth employment.
If someone is primarily familiar with the traditional image of farm work, how can they consider all the possibilities that exist within the sector? Processing, marketing, services, technology, and entrepreneurship are also part of agricultural value chains.
But my fieldwork taught me above all that it would be too easy to make this issue of perception the main explanation.
Changing perceptions of agriculture can encourage more young people to take an interest in it. However, once they are interested, they must actually be able to enter the field.
Wanting something doesn't always mean being able to do it
This is probably the most important distinction I’ve drawn from my research.
As I conducted interviews and observations—particularly in Songon and Agboville—the same challenges kept coming up in different forms: access to land, financing, equipment, training, and markets. Added to these were the effects of climate change and difficulties related to institutional support.
These obstacles do not necessarily operate in isolation.
Training may enable a young person to acquire agricultural skills, but what happens next if they lack access to land or the financing needed to start their business? Obtaining a plot of land also does not guarantee that they will have the necessary equipment or a market in which to sell their produce.
This is where my field experience aligned with several concepts covered in my studies in international development. In college, we are often led to look beyond individual behaviors and focus on the structures that shape the opportunities available to people.
In the field, this distinction became much less abstract.
Talking about “motivation” or “entrepreneurial spirit” isn’t enough when a person’s ability to act also depends on the resources available to them. One of the young people I interviewed summed up his situation in a particularly simple way: he was willing to work in agriculture, but he lacked the means to do so.
A different reality still for young women
My mandate also placed special emphasis on the experiences of young women. This aspect reminded me that a single economic sector does not necessarily offer the same opportunities to everyone.
The challenges faced by young women may overlap with those faced by other young people—particularly regarding financing or access to productive resources—while also being compounded by additional constraints. Family responsibilities, certain social norms, and the conditions governing access to resources can thus influence their ability to develop and sustain an economic activity.
This reality helped me better understand why gender analysis plays such an important role in international development.
It is not enough to simply note that a program or opportunity is theoretically accessible to both women and men. We must also ask whether the conditions for benefiting from it are truly the same.
This distinction seems relatively simple in a classroom setting. It becomes much more concrete when we begin to listen to the experiences of those directly affected.
Ask a Better Question
At the start of my research, I was primarily seeking to identify the barriers to young people’s employability in the agricultural sector. By the end, I realized that my fieldwork had also taught me how to frame the problem more effectively.
Asking why young people aren’t drawn more to agriculture can inadvertently place the blame on their choices: their lack of interest, their perception of the sector, or their career aspirations.
My experience taught me to ask a different question.
What conditions must be in place so that a young person who wants to work in agriculture can actually make it a viable career?
This shift in perspective may seem minor, but it transforms the way we think about solutions. Raising awareness among young people and promoting agricultural careers remain important. However, these efforts have their limits if they are not accompanied by better access to resources, skills, financing, and economic opportunities.
My internship with the EUMC thus reminded me of a key lesson from my studies in international development: behind a problem presented as individual, there are sometimes several structural constraints.
I went into the field seeking to understand the obstacles that keep young people away from agriculture. I returned with a slightly different question: what if, before asking young people why they don’t choose agriculture, we started by asking ourselves whether the conditions actually allow them to choose it?
This is perhaps one of the most important lessons I’ve taken away from this research: listening to those directly affected doesn’t just help us find new answers. Sometimes, it teaches us above all to ask better questions.