Nyamira County Governor Amos Nyaribo has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Practical Action, a non-governmental organization that aims to empower youths to embrace Agriculture.
Governor Nyaribo said the organization will be key in changing the youth’s perception towards agriculture and embracing it because it is an equal employer just like the coveted blue-collar jobs which have become extremely limited and their revenue base regulated.
“Our youths are the future economic drivers of our county and country the more reason why they need to acquire relevant agricultural skills and knowledge to venture into agriculture professionally by ensuring our diminishing land sizes are utilized efficiently for maximum production. Practical Action will therefore be handy in providing ready market linkages where youths will sell their farm produce to enjoy and appreciate undertaking agriculture as a business and an employment opportunity.
“My government has allocated sufficient financial resources where youths can be supported for their start-up agricultural businesses, especially in dairy, poultry, and local vegetables whose demand has never been fully met, an indication that there are untapped opportunities for our youth to take advantage of and earn handsomely”. Nyaribo assured.
Practical Action country director Susan Maina said she was very excited with the warm welcome and was very optimistic that the MoU will enable them to create strong and lasting partnerships which will further sustain an enabling environment for youths to operate in.
“We want to remove barriers which hinder youths from thriving in agriculture as fast as expected, like advising them on how to meet collateral requirements to access start-up capital from various financial institutions to jump-start their agricultural ventures of interest, and connect them with market linkages for their products.” Director Susan explained.
“As Practical Action, we are targeting to train 8000 youths in this County whereby 70% of them will be women so that we meet the gender inclusion factor which has been a serious challenge in counties where we have worked before. We are optimistic that this mentorship model we shall introduce in this county will work because it has worked in two counties where we have been.” Assured Susan.
“We shall leverage on the experience we have learned in Kisumu and Homabay counties where we have implemented this mentorship model for four years which we are now scaling up to seven other counties where Nyamira County is one of the beneficiaries. Youths in these two countries have progressed very well in the value chains which has convinced them to change their mindset that job opportunities are not found in offices, agriculture is another employer if one sets their mind to engage in it.” Said the director.
Practical action will support Youths in Nyamira for 5 years to enable them to develop a positive attitude towards agriculture because of lucrative ventures and youths where youths need to be guided on how to make a decent living out of it.
By Deborah Bochere
