On a blazing afternoon in Senegal, 33-year-old farmer Filly Mangassa heaved peanut plants onto a horse-drawn cart, sending clouds of dust swirling. Ten years ago, he left his village for the capital, Dakar, dreaming of becoming a professor. But the high cost of living and lack of jobs put that dream out of reach.
“Particularly after COVID, companies weren’t hiring and prices were rising,” said Mangassa, who has a masters degree in criminology. “I thought: My father and my grandfather were farmers, so why not use that experience and go back to my hometown and try to make a living in agriculture.” Across much of Africa, farming has long been seen as low-status work, pushing young people to cities in search of office jobs. “For my father and some people in my family, they sort of saw me returning to the countryside as a step back,” Mangassa said.
But that perception is changing. Rising food prices, investments in irrigation and access to new technologies are making agriculture more profitable. Governments and nonprofits now fund programs that teach advanced farming skills and support farmers with equipment, fertilizers, pesticides and seeds.
Read Full Article on Club of Mozambique
[paywall]
He is part of a trend of young Africans leaving cities to try their luck at farming. Mangassa says he makes a profit of around 2 million CFA ($3,500 a year), far above Senegal’s average yearly income of about $2,500. Africa is the world’s fastest-urbanizing region, with cities growing at an average rate of 3.5% per year.
As city populations increase, so does the cost of living. Median rents and grocery prices in places like Dakar or Kenya’s capital of Nairobi are approaching those of major European cities, despite median salaries being significantly lower, according to the World Bank. Meanwhile, between 10 and 12 million young Africans enter the job market each year while only about 3 million formal jobs are created, according to the African Development Bank. “A lot of my friends who graduated at the same time as me now work as motorcycle taxi drivers and barely make a living,” Mangassa said.
[/paywall]
