The government of Tanzania has set an ambitious goal of using agritech to lure 200,000 young men and women into agriculture each year in order to reduce youth unemployment and increase agricultural productivity.
This comes at a time studies have shown that the young people withdraw from farming to numerous barriers they faced, including negative perceptions towards agriculture, limited agricultural entrepreneurial skills, poor access to land, and limited accessibility to financial services, markets, and digital technologies.
However, the government through programmes such as Building a Better Tomorrow—Youth Initiative for Agribusiness (BBT-YIA) and Ajenda 10/30 under the ministry of Agriculture are heavily directed to finding solutions that will create an additional one million jobs for young Tanzanians through farming.
According to Hussein Bashe, the country’s agriculture minister, the young population in Tanzania can be encouraged in profitable farming since their increasing numbers are one of the country’s competitive advantages.
“Our youth can be more productive in agritech as they are avid users of technology, and eager to learn and try new things than adults,” said Bashe.
A recent report by Africa Development Bank indicates that if the young people are allowed to actively participate in economic activities, they have the potential of boost country’s GDP by more than 10 per cent.
Currently, Tanzania’s youth account for more than 56 percent of the active labour force, of which 51 percent of those engaged in agriculture are aged between 15 and 24, according to the report.
Public and private agritech initiatives
Among ongoing public and private agritech initiatives to attract young people into agriculture is a digital solution platform being fronted by a coalition of private companies such as Jubilee Insurance, Equity Bank, Corteva Agriscience, Agriculture Seed Agency (ASA), and Murzah Wilmar Rice Millers Ltd targeting farmers.
The platform called Africaconnect Digital Platform (ACDP) launched in 2022 by agriculture inputs manufacturer Yara Tanzania has been designed to bridge the gap between farmers and financial provders, quality agricultural inputs, agronomic assistants, and market opportunities.
With this platform, all a farmer need is a mobile phone to access all the essential services to embark on stable, predictable, and profitable farming in one place.
“This is potentially revolutionary in the way we want to approach the future of agriculture. Through modern technology, youth now have a reason to believe in agriculture again and embark on an experience guaranteeing them a successful career in agribusiness,” said Deodath Mtei, Yara’s digital retail solutions manager for Tanzania and Rwanda.
According to him, farmers enrolled with Africaconnect need not worry about any problems hindering their work, as the platform has assembled various service providers to offer effective solutions to their needs.
Internet penetration
Of course the country is banking on the increasing internet penetration to meet this target.
Statistics released by the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) show that Internet usage in Tanzania has increased by 4.2 percent from 29.8 million users recorded in 2021 to 31.12 million users recorded in September last year.
With the tangible success in 2022, the AfricaConnect partnership will seek to enroll 300,000 farmers on the platform in 2023, with a target of 1 million farmers by 2025.
