Youth employment in agriculture

A case study of Adam Athuman and the youth-led union of Kipunda Amcos in Tanzania

Emmanuel S. Mdidi

Publicity & Public Relations Officer

Tanzania Federation of Cooperatives (TFC)

FAO Investment days 18 December 2013

Highlights

• Introduction • Junior Farmers Field and Life Schools (JFFLS) • Adam Athman’s initiatives • How he began to organize youth • Planning and farming • Harvest expectation for 1st phase • Actual harvests of the 1st phase • How the loan was used • Their status today • Challenges that youth are facing in engaging in agriculture • Their next plan • Conclusions

Introduction • Adam Athumani is a young, agro

entrepreneur and youth leader from the village of Mampando in Singida region Tanzania mainland

• He comes from a family of agro producers

• He is one of 30 youth trainers who acquired Agriculture and Life skills trained using the Junior farmer Field and Life Schools methodology in 2011 organized by the Tanzania Federation of Cooperatives (TFC) and FAO

Junior Farmers Fields and Life Schools (JFFLS)

• Is a vocation training methodology that aims at enhancing young women and men knowledge in agro business while also associating life skills

• The aim is to break the youth poverty cycle while facilitating youth entrance in the agro sector

Adam Athman’s initiatives • After the training Adam

mobilized 150 youth in his area

• He taught them agriculture skills and life skills

• Later they formed a youth Union under the umbrella of the existing Primary society which is affiliated by Tanzania Federation of Cooperatives (TFC)

How he began to organize youth

• Consulted the chairman for Kipunda Amcos and request if youth could access Amcos land

• Kipunda Amcos did not have enough land, so they assisted him to request land from the regional commissioner (Dr. Parseko Koni)

• The regional commissioner assisted them to access land (about 300 acres)

• He organized initially about 120 youth

Planning and farming • They started by planning what to produce, how to produce, and where to

get capital • They agreed to start by clearing the land (about 100acres after they have

secured loan of 7Million ($4500)from Kipunda Agricultural and Maketing Cooperative Society.

• Out of 100 acre only 60 acres were used to plant sunflower • To save time and travel cost, they made a camp close to the field from

cultivation to the harvest period • The regional commissioner office offered them small inputs to start of the

activity after they were impressed with the youth idea and proactive behaviour

Harvest expectation for 1st phase

• The youth expected to harvest about 900 bags (1bag=100kg)

• Each bag is expected to be sold at tshs. 40,000 ($26) total output is expected to be tshs 36,000,000 ($23400)

Cultivated Ha No. of Bags/Ha

Price /bag before processing

Price/bag after Processing

60 15 40,000 ($26) 48,000 ($31)

Total 900 36,000,000 ($23400)

42,000,000 ($27900)

Actual Harvests of the 1st phase

• There is slight difference of output from expectation and output (2bags/acre) which was caused by weather variability and birds infestation

NB: The harvests have not yet been sold, they are in the warehouse waiting for good price [Current market price: Tsh 40,000 ($25) before processing, Tsh 50,000 ($31.6) after processing]

Cultivated acres

#Bags/ acres

Price /bag before processing Price/bag after Processing

60 13 40,000 ($26) 48,000 ($31)

Total 780 31,200,000($19911) 37,440,000($23893)

How the loan was used

Activity Price/Tsh. No. of items

Total

Farming costs 25,000 60 1,500,000

Harvesting cost

3000 780 2,340,000

Camping cost 5,400,000

Total 9,240,000

Challenges faced by youth to engage in agriculture

• Dependency on the rain-rainfed agriculture • Most cooperative Unions in Tanzania are

dominated by adults and are not ready for youth to own land

• Limited support from financial institution, policy markers, agricultural leading ministries

• Poor infrastructures eg. Road, irrigation schemes, marketing information system

– NB: Some of these Challenges are opportunities to

them

Their Next Plan

• Their immediate plans

– To buy enough farm inputs next production season (2013)

– They expect to increase the cultivated land to 1200 acres (at least every youth should own 10 acres)

– They want to buy a small tractor

– They want to attract more youth to join their Union

– Start processing their own products

Conclusions • Youths are a potential group for the agriculture sector. If there

are no youth in agriculture today there is no future for the agriculture sector

• Much should be done to bring youth back to farms in Africa, they need incentives and encouragements

• Donors and governments should turn a coin on youth

• It works positively when youth come into groups (preferably cooperatives)

As Adam says“ Agro-business need patience, good planning, youth can benefit if they work in a group”

Asanteni Sana! Thank you very much