Shine Green Farms

SUGECO’S CONTRIBUTION TO THE YOUTHS

Mission:

SUGECO’s mission is to prepare, enable, and support knowledge-intensive, innovative entrepreneurs as they build successful businesses along agricultural, agribusiness, forest, and livestock and fisheries sector throughout Tanzania.

Vision:

Create future generations of successful business persons who transform our culture to value entrepreneurship and help to create a vibrant interplay between the informal economy and formal economy.

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25April2015 Shine Green Farms ~ release agricultural articles

Quality and healthy products

0712208855 Abdul shango

0767200885 Immanuel juma0657840187 Paul Bernard

Shinegreenfarms03@gmail.c

Strategic context of the agro business strategy

As the single major contributor to national GDP, is key to the country’s overall economic development now and in the near future. Its potential in this regard is substantial.

The Agricultural Sector Development strategy, which is the conclusion of a participatory consultative process among a wide range of sector stakeholders, provides a basis for action by both the public and private sectors to support Tanzania’s efforts to stimulate agricultural growth and to reduce rural poverty.

This strategy is an integral component of the ongoing macroeconomic adjustment and structural reforms that are supported by Tanzanian’s development partners. The medium term objectives are determined by poverty reduction strategy paper and the long term goals by the Tanzania Development Vision 2025. Agriculture is important to Tanzania’s immediate-

Challenges facing youth in agro- business industry.

Article Created by; Abdul jafari shango

Young people in developing countries especially Tanzania are the most affected by common persistent problems including extreme poverty, HIV/AIDS and unemployment, yet they are often overlooked in addressing these problems.

Youth unemployment is high in urban areas than in rural areas mainly because most employments opportunities in urban require skilled labor of which most youths in urban lack hence end up to think of employing themselves and get engaged in trade or business of finished goods but endlessly others go further to focus on agro business sector but unfortunately they are put into various setbacks to their production activities hence failure to tolerate.

In rural areas most of youths are informally employed in subsistence agriculture and family based livelihood activities such as handicraft, fishing, shops etc. however performance of subsistence farming is unfavorable due to several factors including low productivity, overdependence on rain fed agriculture, low use of agricultural inputs and poor marketing systems. Due to this rural youths are forced to move to urban informal sectors which is characterized by low incomes and poor working conditions.

to foster development of agricultural sector in Tanzania.

However for many years the government has overlooked and forgotten the important contribution young people have in agriculture development in Tanzania.

This study thus looks on current status on challenges that youths face during involvement in the agro business zone as well as the position of the government in collaboration with private sectors to develop more effective and efficient measures to implement more support to the youths in their engagements in the agro business sector so as to enable them to enroll with available opportunities in this vital sector for the improvement of not only the youths life standards but also to supplement the backbone of the country’s development.

Opportunities in agricultural

sector for the youths…

President Jakaya Kikwete has officially opened the first youth agricultural training camp at Mkongo in Rufiji district, Coast Region tomorrow.

According to the Director General of Rufiji Basin Development Authority (RUBADA) Aloyce Masanja, the brain behind of the project, the camp is part of implementation of the Youth in Agricultural Programme - YIAP.

“This is part of efforts to prove to the youth in the country that agriculture pays,” he told journalists yesterday in Dar es Salaam.

Masanja said that the camp seeks to provide skills to youths and enable them to profitably engage in agricultural activities as a way of realizing the government’s ambitious ‘Big Results Now’.

AGRICULTURAL ACTIVITIES INVOLVING YOUTHSRUBADA is rolling out the training by using a “Hub and Spoke” modal where a big local or foreign investor will be a “Hub” while small holder farmers will be “Spoke”.

It’s expected to have five training camps which will harbor 300 youths each for this financial year, the training will be offered for a period of one year.

The camps will be responsible in offering trainings on modern agricultural practices; mechanized methods; environmental protection; value addition; project write ups and formation of community and saving groups among others.

The trainings will be grouped in three major areas of producing high value crops especially horticulture products and fruits; modern livestock keeping; and fishing.

Mkongo camp which will begin with 50 youths has the capacity of taking 300 youths at

AMONGEST THE SETBACKS FOR YOUTHS FULL PARTICIPATION IN Findings and researches for the go about

challenges in the vital sector

TOMATO CULTIVATION ON A ½ AN ACRE PIECE OF LAND

- Youths are facing a problem of inadequate amounts of capital to finance the production activities

- Due to the use of the conventional methods in agricultural activities they hence fond of not affording the high prices set for the incentives and equipments for their production activities

- They face a problem also of farm sizes being too small average of 2 acres or even less than that, leads to low productions

- Low growth of incomes hence lower their activities and as well as poor connectivity to the value chains and markets.

- They still use the traditional techniques-

Whereby they produce very less compared to the market requirements and as well compared to the way the competition is inside and outside the country.

- Government and donors focus more on improving agricultural value chains for cash crops lie tea, cotton, cashew nuts, coffee, sugar cane etc. living behind other crops especially the horticultural as well fail to promote other agricultural activities to which even most of the youths are engaged in.

- Banks negative attitude towards Agro- financing. Experience and studies show that most banks in Tanzania consider agriculture sector as too risky to qualify for financing with exceptions of a few which have been trying their level best to provide a conducive environment for financing this sector.

Largely enough the banks and financing institutions that provide financing in terms of loans have higher interests rates most above 14 percent but also require detailed business plans, collaterals like land tittles and focus on large scale farms projects with the scale not less than even 50 hectares of farm land. These conditions are mostly not conducive for people especial the youths as most of them are smallholders and especially in rural hence not qualify for the financing therefore tends to hinder their involvement in agro business activities.

- Most if not many young people in agriculture lack better farming techniques and the agro business skills especially horticultural farming lack these skills and end up practicing based on experiences. Hence this and other challenges put youths involved in this type of agriculture unable to produce better quality and adequate quantities products hence fail to secure their markets.

Policies that will recognize youth and allocate land for youth agricultural projects in urban and rural areas.

- The government should promote successful youth agricultural groups and present them in community as role models as way to attract more youths in agriculture sector.

- The government should improve access to markets for agricultural products and information on available opportunities in farming to enable youth engaged in agriculture access and capitalize on them.

- Youths should be mobilized into farmer’s cooperatives both rural and urban areas from district level to village level and promote youth agricultural projects through technical skills and financial support.

- Improve land formalization process in rural and urban areas to enable youth own bankable land.

- Better land reform policies to allocate land for youth to access the agricultural projects -

- Better credit and finance facility for youth agricultural activities to develop an attractive loan obtaining as well as credit package for youth international banks, SACCOS projects from local district and rural areas as even in village government level.

- Improve access to markets for agricultural products, link youths with agribusiness to small and large processing companies involved food processing industries, retail and wholesale food markets.

- To put stable and effective policies concerning the prices for the input materials and incentives involved in their production activities especially the equipments hence enabling the young entrepreneurs in their productions and acquire health, good quality products and in an appropriate quantity to manage the competitive access in the markets with other producers.

- The government should play a vital role of providing agribusiness management training on better farming techniques on short term crops especially horticultural crops where many youths are engaged into.

- The government should strengthen and impose more efforts on promoting various projects through technical and funding support.

- Provide more business management and entrepreneurship training focus on using on agricultural projects to young people with emphasis on more advanced entrepreneurial techniques.

- The government through its agencies in collaboration with private sector should develop suitable credit and finance facility for agricultural projects managed and ran by young farmers particularly for those in rural areas but also those already engaged into the activities.

- The government should develop suitable land reform-

To attract youth and help improving their agro business activities a multi- stake holder process and analysis must be taken in which government, donor community, NGO’s and private sector must address the following:

Government support to the youth(s).