A recent report titled Agriculture Household Survey (AHS 2024) shows that 30.7 percent of Rwandan youth aged 16 to 30 are engaged in agriculture-related activities, while adults over 30 involved in farming total about 3.6 million people.
Although the 2022 National Population and Housing Census indicated that agriculture employs 65 percent of Rwanda’s population, it also found that young people between 16 and 30 make up less than 14 percent of the agricultural workforce. Additionally, 17 percent of educated youth work in fields related to agriculture, forestry, and fisheries.
Agriculture remains a key part of Rwanda’s economy, contributing over 25 percent of the national GDP. The Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources (MINAGRI) emphasizes the importance of attracting young people to farming, especially as many current farmers are aging and mostly engaged in small-scale subsistence agriculture.
Rwanda has started tapping into graduates from the Rwanda Institute for Conservation Agriculture (RICA), which trains students in sustainable and modern farming. Many of these graduates are young, raising hopes for transformative change in the sector.
During the Africa Food Systems Summit held in Senegal in September, President Paul Kagame urged African youth to become the backbone of modern agriculture through innovation and technology. He stressed that empowering young people and providing them with platforms to use their skills would help increase agricultural productivity.
President Kagame also called on governments to establish policies that remove barriers for young farmers and support them in implementing agribusiness projects.
Statistics show that Africa has over 400 million people aged 15 to 35, and while 60 percent of its land is arable, the continent still struggles with low agricultural productivity due to challenges such as climate change.
To address these issues, the Rwandan government has encouraged commercial banks to develop financial solutions that prioritize agriculture as a driver of economic growth.
According to the AHS 2024 report, more than 2.2 million households in Rwanda, or 65.3 percent of all households, are engaged in farming. About 88.4 percent of these rely on agriculture as their main source of livelihood, while the rest combine it with other income-generating activities.
The survey also found that 74.3 percent of farming households are headed by men, while 25.7 percent are led by women. The average household size is 4.4 people, with farming households comprising around 9.6 million individuals, 48.3 percent male and 51.7 percent female.
