Taha out to draw Tanzania's youth to horticulture

ALSO READ: Tanzanian youth turning to horticulture industry

Working in collaboration with Horti-Tengeru training college, the Tanzania Horticultural Association (Taha) is currently imparting practical agri-business skills to 36 out of 812 youth who were selected by the Ministry of Agriculture to join the BBT programme countrywide.

“This is one of the government strategic initiative targeting youth. Taha as a development partner, we thought it’s important to compliment the Ministry of Agriculture’s efforts” Taha CEO Jacqueline Mkindi said.

She added: “We’ve commenced a comprehensive practical trainings on good agricultural practices through Taha’s proven technologies as well as entrepreneurship and marketing skills to 36 selected youth to empower them to tap into $779 million industry.”

Ms Mkindi said Taha also provides training on financial literacy, records keeping, contract farming, research and policy advocacy skills as part of its comprehensive training package crucial for youth to venture into horticulture value chains of their choices.

Taha package also includes the post-harvest loss management, nutrition and gender inclusion, standards and food safety (GlobalG.A.P) as well as perishable handling skills.

Training aside, Taha is also involved in developing the infrastructure at Horti-Tengeru, one of national incubation hubs designed for training youth in agribusiness through BBT programme.

“We have developed the key infrastructure such as green houses for seedling nursery, install drip irrigation, and cover water reservoir with green shade net to avoid algae development at Horti-Tengeru model farm to provide practical knowledge on horticultural farming for 36 youth,” Ms Mkindi noted.

Taha will also facilitate exposure visits to commercial horticultural estates in the northern Tanzania and to the regulatory bodies such as Tanzania Agricultural Research Institute (TARI), Tanzania Official Seed Certification Institute (TOSCI), Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA), Tanzania Bureaus of standards (TBS), Tanzania Fertilizer Regulatory Authority (TFRA) and Agricultural Seed Agency (ASA) and Tanzania Plant Health and Pesticides Authority (TPHPA).

Agriculture Minister, Hussein Bashe says BBT-YIA’s strategic objectives are to inspire youth through implementing behavior/attitude changing communication strategy, empower youth through training mentoring and coaching.

Engage youth in profitable and sustainable management of agribusinesses, Mr Bashe explains, adding that enable youth-led enterprises by improving business environment; and coordinate effectively youth agribusiness support initiatives for synergy and efficiency.

BBY-YIA will see establishment and development of block farms for youth minimum of five acres in each region and later at each district.

The Minister further says that the programme will also witness the development of Youth Agribusiness Parks (YAP) to enable access of agricultural land for youth as the government has set aside over 77,000 hectors of irrigated land for youth through different schemes.

Implementations of BBT-YIA will hands-on trainings focusing on providing youth in agribusiness skills with close mentorship and coaching from experienced international and local experts in agribusiness.

Strategy is to establish BBT-YIA youth start-up and growth catalyst fund to mobilize at least Sh72 billion and over 15,000 start-up capital applications to be processed and access funds.