PROMOTING RURAL YOUTH ENGAGEMENT AND EMPLOYMENT THROUGH AGRI-FOOD SYSTEMS
By Purity Akoth
Globally, digital technologies and innovations are becoming the driving force in expanding opportunities within the agriculture sector. Several innovations are transforming the value chain, making it a new front for employment creation and livelihood enhancement, plus diversification, particularly among the youth.
Kenya is endowed with energetic, talented, and creative youths, yet the majority of this population perceives agriculture as a poor man’s occupation and a last resort livelihood option.
This negative perception impacts their career paths, depriving them of the vast opportunities at hand. Kenya’s agriculture industry is the engine of its economy, employing 60% of the country’s labor force, directly and indirectly generating more than half of its GDP. Kenya’s agri-food sector is the country’s biggest job creator and contributor to export earnings. Therefore, it is necessary to showcase existing and create new decent employment and income opportunities for rural youths. In the long run, this is critical to reducing poverty, improving food security, providing a future for young people in rural areas, and accelerating sustainable innovation in the agri-food sector.
LakeHub, and Agri-Jobs 4 Youth, aim to harness economic opportunities in the agri-food sector for young people in Western Kenya. Following an all-inclusive integrated approach to rural youth employment advancement, we are focusing on four selected youth-friendly agricultural value chains to improve food security and local economic development, consequently creating new jobs and increasing employment opportunities.
Agri-Jobs 4 Youth is a joint initiative implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, in partnership with the Kenyan Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Cooperatives (MoALFC) on behalf of German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
Together, LakeHub and GIZ Have partnered with four local channel partners: Magharibi Hub, BAYE Africa, CAPYEI, and Rafiki wa Maendeleo to incubate and accelerate 140 youths and women in agribusiness, to establish agripreneurs in the food sector, particularly involving; passion fruits, groundnuts, poultry, and apiculture value chains. The incubation program focuses on youths and established entrepreneurs between 18–35 years, 70% being women.
Out of the 140 entrepreneurs, 20 will join the LakeHub acceleration program: a comprehensively designed program for business modelling, product development, leadership honing, market penetration strategies, mentorship, and coaching to spur the growth of social ventures into self-sustainable businesses that would improve food security.
LakeHub, through an all-inclusive successful strategic stakeholder engagement and sensitization, identified poultry, passion fruits, groundnuts, and apiculture value chains as the biggest sectors for youth agripreneurship. Evidence from the dialogue with stakeholders, including youth, identified numerous opportunities for informed transformation at different stages of the value chain: soil analysis, seed production, weeding, harvesting, transportation, value addition, marketing, and training.
