With the aim of improving agriculture in rural areas, students from the fifth cohort of the Master’s 2 program at the Ivorian Center for Economic and Social Research (CIRES) decided to launch a network on Saturday, December 14, 2019. They resolved to work toward bringing together stakeholders in the rural agricultural sector and to contribute to the socioeconomic growth of Côte d’Ivoire through this sector.

During the first edition of “Rural Economist Day,” held at the CIRES premises in Abidjan/Cocody, the president of the fifth cohort, Bamba Maïmouna, explained that the creation of a network of rural economists will serve as a framework for exchanges among students to find solutions for the transformation of rural agriculture and facilitate the professional integration of young people.

Minayaha Siaka Coulibaly, Chief of Staff to the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, congratulated these students on this initiative. “You are the new generation equipped to meet the new challenges of agricultural modernization (…). It is our duty to utilize you to help achieve the goals of agricultural modernization,” he said.

Regarding the professional integration of young people in the agricultural sector, Minayaha Siaka Coulibaly promised that the Ministry of Agriculture and Sustainable Development will do everything possible to ensure that farmers become entrepreneurs. In his view, the creation of small and medium-sized enterprises would be ideal for professionalizing their activities.

During the event, thematic discussions were held by stakeholders from the agricultural sector and researchers, particularly on the strategy for achieving rice self-sufficiency in Côte d’Ivoire by 2025.