Employment of agricultural graduates: who are we training for?

This paper traces the employment of agricultural graduates over the last decade in Mali, Congo Brazzaville, Ghana and Gambia, as well as competencies and skills offered by agricultural training institutions. As in the pre-structural adjustment period of the 1980s agricultural graduates were employed mainly by the public sector, but in the last 10 years civil society organizations, agribusiness and farmers’ organizations have entered the market for agricultural graduates. Some of the key competence required by these employers includes agricultural engineering and farm machinery; agricultural economics with emphasis on farm management; innovation systems and value chains; and communication including report writing and ICT skills. Further, farmers’ organizations look for agricultural graduates with good interpersonal skills; exposure to participatory technology development and dissemination; and appreciation of socio-cultural contexts.