Africa’s Future Farmers, Immigrant Doctors in Rural America and Other Reports

Every week, RuralReporters.com collate reports on development issues in rural Africa and its environs.

This report includes some of our top picks from recent must-read research, interviews, blogs, and in-depth articles, carefully selected to help you keep up with global issues.

Here are some of the updates you may have missed from the previous week:

Immigrant doctors in rural America are sick of waiting for green cards

International medical graduates — who account for a quarter of the 800,000 practicing doctors in the United States — have stepped up to fill physician shortages throughout rural America. In exchange, they’ve been granted work visas and have been allowed to stay in the country after graduation. Typically, foreign medical graduates are required to leave the country after completing their medical residency and wait two years before applying for a US work visa. But with immigration backlogs growing ever longer, it may become harder to keep some of these foreign doctors in the country.

Originally from India, Raghuveer Kura is the only kidney specialist that the town of Poplar Bluff, Missouri. He has been in the United States for 17 years, and has temporary worker status through an H-1B visa. The government approved Kura’s application for a green card back in 2014, but he still must wait in line behind hundreds of thousands of other applicants to actually get it. That’s because Kura must first transition from his non-immigrant H-1B visa to an immigrant visa before he can receive his permanent resident status.

Listening to Africa’s future farmers      

Africa is in the midst of a youth employment crisis. By 2035, some 350 million new jobs will be needed, and agriculture, the continent’s biggest industry, could provide the bulk of them. But at the moment, young Africans are shunning life on the farm for work in the city. If Africa’s employment gap is to be closed, agribusinesses must find ways to recruit younger hands.

Many of the young people with whom we spoke said that their biggest obstacle to a career in farming is learning the digital and technical skills necessary to succeed in today’s agricultural market. With technologies like cloud computing, soil sensors, and weather drones changing how food is produced, packaged, and distributed, digital literacy is as important as arable land and high-quality seeds. It stands to reason, then, that if more young people could master digital skills, more would find work in the field.

Liberia: National Housing Authority Creates Rural Upgrading Department

part of President George Manneh Weah’s mandate to modernize rural housing across the country, the National Housing Authority (NHA) has announced the creation of a Rural Upgrading Department responsible to oversee affairs on rural communities in the country.

According to a press release, NHA Managing Director Hon. Duannah Siryon said the creation of the Rural Upgrading Unit (RUU) has become necessary so that the NHA will be able to have available at its fingertips information about rural housing in the country.

“For example,” Hon. Siryon said, “if we want to know how many affordable units that should be built in any rural community, we should have the information on hand right away without delaying because of the feasibility study.”

Fund to invest billions for African rural ventures in three years

Development institution Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund will invest over Sh30 billion in the next three years to support businesses in the renewable energy and agribusiness sectors across Africa that directly work with rural people in Africa.

The investment is part of the organisation’s three-year strategic plan to change 25 million lives in rural Africa, in the next three years.

The funds will be invested in gender inclusive businesses, and allow female entrepreneurs equal access to finance.

Ifad pledges funds for rural people to raise food production

Italian-based International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) said funds will be injected into programmes that enhance food production with a keen eye on improving commercial value chains that enable rural dwellers to sell their produce. IFAD’s Vice-President Cornelia Richter was speaking after completing a five day country tour of Kenya where she visited Embu and Nakuru counties to inspect ongoing programmes funded by Ifad under the Small Dairy Commercialisation Project and the Kenya Cereal Enhancement Programme–Climate Resilience Adaptation Livelihoods Window.

“With more than 75 per cent of Kenya’s population living in rural areas, Ifad is strongly committed to investing in rural women and men who are so important to ensuring food security in these communities,” she said.

Tom Arnold Appointed Chair of Task Force Rural Africa

The Global Panel has appointed Panel Member Tom Arnold as Chair of Task Force Rural Africa, established by the European Commission in May 2018. The newly constituted Task Force Rural Africa consists of 11 members with expertise in agriculture, agri-business, trade, development policy, and knowledge of the agri-food sector in Africa. The group of experts will provide advice on how to boost public-private investments in African sustainable agriculture; examine ways to enable job creation and revenue-generating activities in rural Africa and identify strategies to promote and prioritise agricultural policy in African countries.