SIYB trainer Mr.Martin Jeremiah presenting during seminar workshop.
Facilitator noting something on board.
Young farmers listening careful to the facilitator
Mr. Mbele, project coordinator prepare some training documentations during training.
Mr Calvin Salema, FASO project accountant during seminar workshop..
Youth farmers are considered as backbone
of the country. In Tanzania youth is currently the largest group in its history
facing a number of critical life decisions. Their well being and health is profoundly
important for agribusiness development.
In this context, FASO is implementing
a project funded by ILO through The Foundation for Civil Society (FCS) to
provide five-day entrepreneurship training to youth farmers in Kahe ward, Moshi
Rural recently to assist them to set up their own business (formal farming business)
and save them from unemployment.
As part of Organic farming project, the
training involved ILO entrepreneurship training packages and the trainer was
Mr. Martin Jeremiah (Qualified ILO SYB trainer). Through those training youth
farmers were offered business and counseling in areas including business
start-up, business planning, management, marketing, finance and customer care.
The endeavors will be made to
facilitate those youth farmers for market identification and product
development. FASO will contribute in building networking with available
Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) to the entrepreneurs for access to finance to establish small
scale enterprise.
“Promoting
entrepreneurship to youth farmers is our main worry and objective,” says
Innocent Mbele, the Coordinator of the project. He indicates that in the
country, the lack of employment is a major challenge encountered by youth.
Although agriculture is a backbone of Tanzania economy, there is a decreasing
interest among youth in entering agricultural related fields due to the
persistent perception of agriculture as an outdated field with minimal
financial returns. Agriculture must be
made ‘sexy’ and profitable to the youth, and entrepreneurship training to young
farmers is a one of the solution…He said.