Mr Perezi Kaumi, the deputy executive director of the Uganda National Farmer’s Federation (UNFFE), advocates for nurturing the young generation into the agriculture sector to join efforts in strengthening the backbone of the country.
He says that given the fact that young people are a critical component of Uganda’s population, with the highest percentage of seventy five below the age of 30 years, they need to be directly involved in the industry. He highlights that the agriculture education show serves as a platform for youngsters to acquire knowledge and skills.
“We also know that from the National Budget 2022/23, agriculture’s contribution towards the county’s National GDP grew from 24 per cent to thirty (30) per cent in 2023/24. This lays a more sold reason why we should prepare our young generation to join efforts in strengthening the backbone of our country,” Mr Kaumi said.
He emphasized that young people face unique challenges, ranging from poverty, where over fifty-five (55) per cent of the youths live in poverty. According to him, unemployment among the youth raised to sixty-five (65) per cent with over 400,000 youths released in the job market annually to compete for only 9000 job opportunities in the country.
“The rate at which the service and industry sectors create jobs is slower amidst increasing skills mismatch among the young people,” he stated, elaborating on the importance of agriculture.
However Mr Kaumi laments that the young people have deliberately shunned the sector because of challenging issues including lack of access to land, limited access to finance, access to quality and reliable information, skills mismatch and a mindset problem.
“Whereas the agriculture sector has largely been indentified to have the highest potential for providing employment to the young people in Uganda, young people continue to shun the sector of impending factors to their entry, stay, and productivity in the sector,” he said, emphasizing the need to come up with more effective strategies to overcome the challenges.
Tuesday June 25, 2024, marked the second day of the third edition of the agricultural education show, a platform bringing together various agriculture sector players and latest technologies, knowledge and skills to match current challenges faced in the sector.
Furthermore, Mr Kaumi states that the initiative provides a platform for continuous knowledge transfer and skilling of the young people through practical demonstration, training, youth innovation competitions, debates, and youth in agriculture-oriented policy dialogues.
He noted that “It is also important that it is provides a coordinated platform for harnessing the interest and use of ICT based innovative digital tools by young people to influence their participation in agriculture values chains.”
Multi stakeholder partnerships and interventions that support young people in agriculture are promoted through organizing fora for privates sector and Non Government Organisations (NGOs) to share relevant information about their work with youth.
