The Tanzania Horticultural Association (Taha) in collaboration with Horti-Tengeru training college has started imparting practical agri-business skills to 36 out of selected 812 youth in a bid to enhance the young people’s participation in the country’s multi-million-dollar horticulture industry.
The move is part of Taha’s contribution to the Tanzania’s Building a Better Tomorrow (BBT-YIA) programme that was inaugurated in August 2022 by the country’s Prime Minister, Majaliwa Kassim with an objective to enhance the engagement of youth in the agricultural sector for sustainable and improved livelihoods.
The 812 youth were selected by the Ministry of Agriculture to join the BBT programme countrywide.
“This is one of the government strategic initiatives targeting youth. Taha as a development partner, we thought it is important to compliment the Ministry of Agriculture’s efforts,” said Jacqueline Mkindi, Taha’s CEO.
“We have commenced comprehensive practical trainings on good agricultural practices through Taha’s proven technologies as well as entrepreneurship and marketing skills to 36 selected youth to empower them to tap into $779 million industry,” she added.
Areas of training
In this, Taha is also providing training on financial literacy, records keeping, contract farming, research and policy advocacy skills as part of its comprehensive training package crucial for youth to venture into horticulture value chains of their choices.
The package also includes the post-harvest loss management, nutrition and gender inclusion, standards and food safety (GlobalG.A.P) as well as perishable handling skills.
Taha is also involved in developing the infrastructure at Horti-Tengeru, one of national incubation hubs designed for training youth in agribusiness through BBT programme.
“We have developed the key infrastructure such as green houses for seedling nursery, install drip irrigation, and cover water reservoir with green shade net to avoid algae development at Horti-Tengeru model farm to provide practical knowledge on horticultural farming for 36 youth,” said Mkindi.
Exposure visits
Taha will also facilitate exposure visits to commercial horticultural estates in the northern Tanzania and to the regulatory bodies such as Tanzania Agricultural Research Institute (TARI), Tanzania Official Seed Certification Institute (TOSCI), Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA), Tanzania Bureaus of standards (TBS), Tanzania Fertilizer Regulatory Authority (TFRA) and Agricultural Seed Agency (ASA) and Tanzania Plant Health and Pesticides Authority (TPHPA).
According to Hussein Bashe, the country’s Agriculture Minister, BBT-YIA’s strategic objectives are to inspire youth through implementing behavior/attitude changing communication strategy, empower youth through training mentoring and coaching.
“Engaging youth in profitable and sustainable management of agribusinesses enables youth-led enterprises improve business environment and coordinate effectively youth agribusiness support initiatives for synergy and efficiency,” said Bashe.
Block farms for the youth
According to the minister, BBY-YIA will see establishment and development of block farms for youth minimum of five acres in each region and later at each district.
“This programme will also witness the development of Youth Agribusiness Parks (YAP) to enable access of agricultural land for youth as the government has set aside over 77,000 hectors of irrigated land for youth through different schemes.”
Implementations of BBT-YIA will hands-on trainings focusing on providing youth in agribusiness skills with close mentorship and coaching from experienced international and local experts in agribusiness.
The strategy is to establish BBT-YIA youth start-up and growth catalyst fund to mobilize at least Sh72 billion and over 15,000 start-up capital applications to be processed and access funds.
