Nairobi — Two international organisations are targeting thousands of youthful farmers in several semi-arid counties for training in profitable agriculture.
The organisations, Africa Harvest and ICRISAT, that target food security and other agricultural interventions among other programmes, have scaled up field training to engage young farmers to boost food production with improved profits.
Through an existing programme dubbed Drought-Tolerant Crops for Youth Jobs Creation, field personnel from Africa Harvest and ICRISAT have taken advantage of the current rains season, to train and entice young people to engage in profitable farming.
The programme, in partnership with Mastercard Foundation, has focussed on field training in semi-arid regions of lower eastern Kenya, mainly Tharaka-Nithi, Meru, Machakos, Kitui, Makueni and Taita Taveta.
The project will also cover Siaya, Homa Bay, Busia and Elgeyo Marakwet counties.
The activity is conducted through training of trainers who are equipped with productive farming skills then dispatched to reach others in their counties.
Africa Harvest Technical Programme Lead, Nehemiah Mburu, who spoke to Capital News from a training unit Machakos, said one underlying aim is to reach as many youth as possible in the selected regions to showcase to them good agronomic practices that lead to increased productivity.
"The overall goal is to see how we can secure job opportunities for young people by training them through the entire value chain, from seed to market," said Mburu.
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The programme been distributing seed for production of drought-resistant crops from the training units aiming to reach as many stakeholders as possible in the target counties during the favourable rain season.
In one county only, Tharaka Nithi, over 6,000 youths had been trained by TOTs last week and been dispatched with seed for planting, according to field officers who did the training.
The project involves following up the progress of the stakeholders through planting, harvesting, until their produce reaches the market, said Mburu.
He said feedback from previous seasons had shown that more youths than before have turned up this year as stakeholders in the Drought-Tolerant Crops project.
Field training this week will be spread across different regions in Siaya, Homa Bay, Busia and Elgeyo Marakwet.
