Agriculture policies in many African countries are failing to recognise the true needs and priorities of their young people, say authors of new research published today by the Institute of Development Studies. Unemployment among young people in Africa is increasingly recognised as a first order development challenge. There is widespread economic growth in many parts of the African continent– but ‘jobless’ economic growth combined with the world’s youngest population threatens progress in many African countries. Given that the majority of Africans live in rural areas, the continuing importance of the agricultural sector to most African economies, and the very slow emergence of employment opportunities in the formal sector, it is not surprising that policy and development practitioners frequently look to agriculture as a key source of opportunity for young people. Yet the way they approach the ‘problem of young people and agriculture’ may be flawed, say authors of the new…