African farming needs an injection of youth

An average farm age of 60-65 is a major challenge to ending world hunger, industry leaders in Malawi and Kenya have claimed.

Dyborn Chibonga, head of Malawi’s Smallholder Farmers Association, told the World Food Day Conference in Dublin’s Mansion House that the average age of farmers in his country was 65.

John Mutunga, who heads the 2m-member Kenya Farmers Federation, said Kenya has an average farm age of 60.