Getting Youth Employed in Agriculture

This project will create gainful Employment for youth through Agriculture by use of Environmental Friendly Innovations and building a vibrant Network of farmers controlled by an internet based hub. It will set up out grower schemes registered as youth associations that will become cooperatives that are linked to  training, market intelligence, incubation kits and actual markets for products including linkages to financial institutions with an agri-entrepreneurial centre of excellence to coordinate efforts. Over 300,000 youths will benefit from this project and the network will grow exponentially as youths reap dividends from incomes earned from their farms. Youth unemployment in Uganda stands at between 64% and 70%, and about 400,000 youths are released annually into the job market to compete for approximately 9,000 available jobs. Engagement of youth and scaling this solution will answer the global youth unemployment challenge,address global food security & create pathways out of Poverty

Africa has a huge domestic market, owns 60 present of the world’s unused arable land, and has abundant labour resources and a favourable climate, yet Africa spends over $30 billion on food imports annually and has the largest youth unemployment globally. Most of Africa’s food is still produced by smallholder farmers in rural areas, largely poor people who use crude farming methods,have very limited access to capital, and are in the sector ''Not by choice''. According to the United Nations, Africa’s agribusiness industry is expected to be worth $1 trillion by 2030 and the need to position human capital,resources and investments in the right direction can not be over emphasised. Secondly,seeing  hundreds of thousands of youth unemployed and only trying to seek unavailable white collar jobs means they must be supported to reinvent themselves. Agriculture is the backbone of Uganda’s economy,with 70% of Ugandans in Agriculture, and contributing half of Uganda’s export earnings and a quarter of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). Since most Ugandans live in rural areas and practice farming, raising agriculture incomes – a centrepiece of Uganda’s National Development Plan is critical to reducing poverty, boosting prosperity and creating descent jobs, especially for women and youth.

This project will establish an internet based agricultural centre of excellence,an  hub to register farmers’ networks according to their different value chains. The hub will map and monitor all Farmers’ fields,including livestock grazing areas.  It will  set up a solar powered water pump for both fish ponds to increase productivity of fish and irrigation. This project will establish a silo for bulking grains, cleaning and drying as a means to deal with the issue of aflatoxins and other post harvest related processes. All youth interested in farming will be formed into youth associations that will eventually grow into cooperatives,all of which will be out-grower schemes or networks linked to the centre of excellence that will be responsible for providing agri-entrepreneurial related information,training,incubation kits,markets and market intelligence,linkages to financial institutions among others. The project will depend on internet based technologies,web cameras,clean energy using solar,water and irrigation systems among other environmentally sustainable models. The network means over 300,000 jobs & descent income from agriculture through fair price & access to local credits aware that cooperatives are involved in savings, leading to bankable income, with growth in innovations, this project will ensure increase in harvest through better agronomic practices and lowered post-harvest losses.

Each year, 400,000 youth in Uganda enter the labor market and compete for only 90,000 formal jobs. 75 percent of the workforce and 55 percent of youth in Uganda are engaged in the agriculture sector, this project will address youth unemployment by creating more opportunities for rural youth to become involved in the sector. This project looks at connecting youth to these opportunities with a goal to increase economic opportunities for approximately over 300,000 Ugandan youth between the ages of 10 and 35. By Supporting their endeavours in agriculture-related initiatives, this project will dedicate efforts to increasing their incomes and building their entrepreneurship, leadership, and workforce-readiness skills. This project also looks to collaborate with other private sector players, workforce institutions, national organisations, and Ugandan leaders to change perceptions of youth on employment.

Creating gainful employment for farmers through Agriculture using environmental friendly innovations and creating a network of farmers is well aligned to the challenge i am dealing with because it looks at creating entrepreneurial skills in Agriculture with an aim of increasing employment opportunities for the youth.

What this project does is quite innovative in the sense that it is creating inspiration for the youth into a sector that has long been looked down upon. Th youth like white collar jobs and introducing internet based technologies in the agricultural sector and ensuring that networks are created seems a great way of making the young people feel part of the farm. Under the company name; SMART AGRICULTURAL SOLUTIONS LTD,we ensure that we make the youth to understand that their farm is an office and our mission statement is '' My farm my office''. This is making many young people appreciate the fact that the farm is not a place for those who have failed but those who have reinvented themselves. With the Managing Director at SMART AGRICULTURAL SOLUTIONS featuring in many National awards as a result of using agriculture to create employment,a number of youth are seeing this as a sector worth embracing. The competitors are thrilled with a solution that is capable of bringing several youth together and as a result ensuring that market linkages are created,this solution is answering the question where many donor funded projects were not outliving the grant duration because the networks is bringing together youth beneficiaries of donor funded agricultural projects and offering them sustainability because of being in a wider network. To date over 27,000 youth have benefiting and continue to reap from the network and ensuring that new tools are brought into this project will just upscale efforts

This solution looks at using internet based technologies to keep several thousands of youth in a network,it also looks to introduce new approaches in the area of clean energy to offer irrigation and increase water in fish ponds among others. Instant messaging and mapping will require the use of smart phones to connect to individual framers

The project truly works based on the fact that we have been able to attract over 27,000 youth into the network and products like goats meat,soya beans,maize are being made available through the youth network. Our youth have been visited by a team from Ghana with an aim of cascading the same technology to youth in Ghana. The Youth Empowerment Through Agriculture Project implemented in Northern Uganda with funding from MasterCard Foundation through NCBA CLUSA has had all youths supported become part of this network and it is a sustainable way of promoting youth engagement in the sector

This technology is based on building network of farmers especially youth. The Youth associations are a powerful tool for combating young people’s impression that they are unable to positively change their lives and living standards. By demonstrating what is possible in a group setting, young people are empowered and motivated to expand their agricultural enterprises. Participating in a network expands young people’s ideas about what is possible, thereby helping them to develop actionable aspirations. 88% of youth in  our network when asked report that they have gained the knowledge and skills to start and maintain sustainable agricultural enterprises. There are numerous economic benefits to participating in an association. Most important among them is increased access to land, which allows for the expansion of a multitude of agricultural enterprises. All our youth under our program have gained access to land. As registered groups, youth have cumulatively tapped opportunities from various institutions including Uganda government programs to invest in their enterprises. Young people report being able to access information, reduced prices for agriculture inputs and higher prices for their harvest more easily through their associations because the lead agency here-SMART AGRICULTURAL SOLUTIONS offers a mentor role and is main engine of the networks. Our Network approach engage Community leaders too  who indicate positive changes in behaviour among participating youth, including increased confidence as well as reduced drinking and gambling that have always impaired young people's suitability to participate in productive economic activities.  Most Associations face challenges, such as weak group cohesion and conflict, difficulty in selecting a good mentor, and including less fortunate youth in their groups but our approach has been successful because SMART AGRICULTURAL SOLUTIONS monitors every aspect of the activities and plays a mentor role with very robust monitoring system. Given that SMART AGRICULTURAL SOLUTIONS offers full support from training,enterprise selection,incubation kits provision,market intelligence and market opportunities,this technology is a game changer in the lives of youth through incomes from agriculture hence an established pathways out of poverty and unemployment for them.

Currently we have 27,000 youth in our network and in a years time we will have over 50,000 youth in the network but given our multiplier effect we hope that in the next five years we will have over 200,000 youth in our network and this means growth in skills and agri-enterprise and descent jobs for the young people

In the coming years this business is capable of creating over 200,000 jobs for youths in a country whose unemployment record is over 75% for youth. Our network will have over 300,000 farmers and this means descent income from agriculture for them through fair price & access to local credits aware that cooperatives are involved in savings, our network is increasingly building a savings culture among farmers and this is added value to bankable income, with growth in innovations, this business will ensure increase in harvest through better agronomic practices and lowered post-harvest losses suffered by most farmers. This business will also contribute to nation building through taxes which helps in infrastructure of the country. The business will consider insurance for farmers’ products too. Our model being award winning we hope to develop public private partnership arrangements that will enable us achieve in areas that we do not have expertise but most importantly we develop alliances with institutions,universities,private companies,embassies of foreign governments as a way of ensuring that we keep abreast with current trends in the sector. This business will establish an agricultural centre of excellence with an internet based hub to control farmers’ networks & offer modern training to farmers in the network. This hub will allow us map and monitor all Farmers’ fields.  It will set up a solar powered water pump for fish ponds to increase productivity of fish. The grain sector will establish a silo for bulking grains, cleaning and drying as we wait for orders

The Main need at the moment is to secure trust based relationship and network with people who have passion for the agricultural sector, dreamers to see rural communities establish pathways out of poverty. Insufficient access to knowledge and information hinders development of entrepreneurial ventures but trusted network can offer this vital access. This project also needs to secure the right financing to unlock its dreams; securing financing & tools for agriculture can be a nightmare in a country like Uganda and for an institution with limited collateral it is increasingly difficult even to secure bank financing which in most cases is also very high interest.

One way to overcome this barrier is what we are already doing of building from what we have and expanding at pace. The other solution is continuing to build networks with people and institutions in the sector but we are also open to new opportunities that can come through the global community.

Our challenge of financing is that we are investing in land and also doing our best to grow our business slowly as a way of increasing our net worth but we are also looking out for opportunities where we can secure Grants and or low interest loans with flexible repayment periods that can favor agriculture.

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We have 30 full time staff and 50 regular workers who come on call either during harvest periods or when there is intensive work on the farm during planting and weeding9 

Myself as the Managing Director at SMART AGRICULTURAL SOLUTIONS,i have a Masters degree in International Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid from the Kalu institute,i am completing my second Masters in International Development,I have post graduate training in mental health and complex emergency attained from the Center for International Humanitarian Cooperation of Fordham University New York and i posses a Bachelors in Community Psychology fro  MAKERERE University. Through this solution,i have accolades to my name; featured among top 40 men under 40 inspriring men in Uganda,Second Best Farmer in Uganda courtsey of the Netherlands Embassy in Uganda,Young Employer of the year 2016/2017 cortesy of federation of Uganda employers and international labour organisation. I have team members with Bachelors in Agriculture,accounting and finance among otherrs and i blieve this will position us to lead this solution to success

Currently we work with organisations implementing Agricultural projects targeted at getting youth out of poverty and in the among them are NCBA CLUSA,ORGANISATION FOR COMMUNITY ACTION,CHILDREN'S CHANCE INTERNATIONAL among others.

This business is widening market opportunities for products that members of the community have, for instance our goats meat export is a new opportunity that goats farmers are getting through network created by us which had never been possible. Through our middle men, youth associations and cooperatives, farmers are getting fair price for their products as a result of external markets that we establish for the grain sector. Besides direct employment in our business over 27,000 youth now have access to gainful employment through Agriculture with huge multiplier effect on family members’ income. This business is an award winner in Uganda and continues to inspire thousands of youths into a sector that has long been neglected.  The business is making fish and other products available, a great nutritional value

We get money from sale of our products in the value chain but also desire to receive grants o establish capital equipment that are difficult to establish through ,loans. we are also looking to secure partnerships with institutions willing to offer low interest loan facilities that can support our work with flexible repayment periods that favour agriculture.