YOUTH ‘AGRIPRENEURSHIPS’ BLOSSOM IN ZAMBIA

IN2012, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) established the IITA Youth Agripreneurs initiative (IYA) in Nigeria to offer capacity building, enterprise development and mentorship to youths and small- scale farmers.

To reduce youth unemployment levels in Zambia, IITA-Zambia introduced the initiative in 2016 under the name Zambia Youth Agripreneurs (ZYA). The institute established its youth-in-agribusiness support program to exploit opportunities for the youth in agriculture and agribusiness such as entrepreneurship, production, processing, value addition, branding, and marketing to create sustainable employment for them and propel them towards self-employment.

ZYA is rightly positioned to help young people choose a career path in agribusiness through its incubation programs. IITA believes that youth agribusiness incubation is a viable strategy to transform the agricultural sector. ZYA conducts incubation along some chosen value chains for young people to learn and commercialize agricultural commodities. The youths are taught how to adopt the best agricultural technologies on specific commodity value chains and stimulate youth-led agribusiness start-ups. They are also encouraged to embrace agriculture as a business and an avenue to create more jobs for other unemployed youths. Through this program, young people are trained, mentored and coached in the production, value addition, entrepreneurship, business plan development, and marketing skills

IITA, through ZYA, has implemented its empowerment projects/activities through youth associations/cooperatives that are located in various parts of the country. Our strategic priorities include youth advocacy for awareness creation in engaging young people in agribusinesses; establishment of nutrient- fortified demonstrations to showcase proven agricultural technologies; operation of youth incubation program/ capacity building for hands- on experiential learning; development of business proposals for funding and, finally mentorship of funded youth- led agribusiness enterprises.

In Kaoma, over 200 youths have been supported by IITA in establishment of fish farming and poultry enterprises. Initially, IITA provided capacity building training to the youth for acquiring of improved skills and knowledge in entrepreneurship and business management.

To spin off the businesses, IITA further provided poultry and fish farming materials, and has since been mentoring the supported youths on business operation. In Kalumwange (Kaoma District), over hundred (100) youths have completed the construction of a 1000 birds-capacity poultry house with support from

IITA. Poultry accessories such as feeders, drinkers, chicken wire, sprayer, work suits, disinfectants, vaccines among other items have so far been handed over to the youths by IITA Director Dr Chikoye in readiness for stocking of day- old Kuroiler Village Chicks in April 2021. Dr Chikoye also explained the need for young people to embrace agriculture and agribusiness for income generation and job creation among themselves.

In his monitoring visit for various youth projects in Kaoma, Dr Chikoye encouraged the youth to promote crop diversification as he visited the food basket demo plots. He further alluded that diversification approach will help youths and smallholder farmers to manage risks associated with farming, expand their sources of income and improve human nutrition. He commended the youth for the best of their efforts in operating poultry production, fish farming and food basket activities in the area.