AGRICULTURE INDABA TO INSPIRE YOUTH TO VENTURE INTO AGRI-BUSINESS

MBABANE – The upcoming youth in Agriculture Indaba will motivate and inspire young people to venture into agri-business.

The Ministry of Agriculture together with a number of organisations will be hosting the Indaba to empower youth agri-preneurs. The event will be held at Esibayeni Lodge on June 22 to 23, 2023 at 8:30am under the theme ‘Empowering the next generation of agri-champions through innovation and technology systems’.Some of the organisations involved include the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) and the Center For Financial Inclusion. Interested agri-preneurs can register with the following organisations: National Marketing and Agricultural Board (NAMBoard), Eswatini National Agricultural Union (ESNAU), Woman Farmer Foundation, Rural Development Areas (RDAs), Children and Youth Development Programme (CYDP), Eswatini National Youth Council (ESNYC), tinkhundla centres and Eswatini Water and Agricultural Development Enterprise (ESWADE). The event aims to motivate and inspire young people to contribute in achieving food security for Eswatini. Statistics show that the country still imports large numbers of food from other countries. An initiative like this will see the country’s youth equipped with skills on how to produce sufficient food for the nation.

Opportunities

Youth up to the age of 35 who are involved or having a strong interest in agriculture can expect opportunities touching on a number of aspects of their businesses including awareness on the different value chains in agriculture. These are the integrated range of goods and services necessary for an agricultural product to move from the producer to the final consumer.There is a growing need for young people to help inform policy making in government. Through this event, young agri-preneurs will give input to inform these policies concerning the agriculture industry in the country. Inasmuch as a lot has been said about agriculture being one of the most profitable industries, the fact that not most ventures were not guaranteed to be successful. Young agri-preneurs will get equipped on viable agri-business opportunities they can venture into.

Empowerment

Mandla Nkambule, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Youth Enterprise Revolving Fund (YERF) said that they were looking forward to the event as it would be an empowerment opportunity for young agriculture entrepreneurs. Nkambule was responding to questions on how the youth would benefit from their participation as an organisation in this event. “With the advent of climate change, farmers need specialised equipment such as tunnels to grow their produce.” he said. Nkambule alluded to the fact that there was a dire need for young people in agriculture in the country as the agriculture field was mostly populated by older farmers with an average age of 62 years.

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