Integrating Youth into Agriculture

Despite being the backbone and key component of Rwanda’s fast-growing economy, employing about 70% of the total population and contributing up to 33% in GDP growth, the agricultural sector is perceived as not interesting for a professional career. Most young people perceive this sector as unattractive, a sector full of dirty work with minimum pay. When projecting the future, the country might not even be able to replace the current aging population of farmers. This is especially true as recent statistics show that 75% of current farmers are above 35 years of age and 55 years is the average age of a Rwandan farmer.

In 2022, With financial support from the US State Department through the US embassy in Kigali / public affairs section. Rwandabiosolution collaborated with LEAD (the umbrella organization for US exchange alumni in Rwanda, and worked with three schools in the Huye district to implement a project entitled “Integrating Youth into Agriculture” that seeks to raise awareness of employment opportunities available in agriculture. Through the project, we established farm fields for schools to train students on how to grow their own vegetables and agribusiness skills and support the school feeding program, as the produce was directly used in school kitchens. The feeding program is a program championed by the government of Rwanda that aims for every child to eat lunch at school.

Through this project, three agribusiness clubs were formed composed of 45 students in total, in three schools in the Huye district (Mbazi Primary School. GS Mutunda, and G.S Mwulire). During 4 months of training and mentorship, students were able to grow 160kg of Amaranthus (Dodo), 337kg of carrots, 386 of onions, 649 of spinach, 558 kg of beetroot,389 of Onions(Puwalo), and 65 kg of cabbage. Students that participated in the Integrating Youth into Agriculture project also received discounts on feeding program fees from their respective schools

The Inclusive Farm School project will affect its target population in the following ways:

1. Creating employment opportunities for the youth especially teen mothers from the community:

   The project will be teaching modern agriculture practices, employ teen mothers to run the model farm and popularize irrigation services across the neighboring communities. This will contribute to the country’s target to create up to 214,000 jobs annually (2018-2024).

2. Prosperity opportunities through sustainable agriculture and transparent value chains:

   Farm gate value addition will bring about positive externalities that will flow over many stakeholders; down to the female street vendors ensuring standardized high value crops through digital interfaces are earning them good reputation and decent wages. A one-of-a-kind initiative highlighting how the human cantered design model can help in creating indigenous solutions in communities.

3. Social and food security impact:

   The waves of hundreds of indirect beneficiaries will connect with a remunerative vocation, improve their livelihoods and contribute to the country's self-sufficiency when it comes to food; addressing the consequences of the endemic poverty in rural areas but also countering the teen pregnancies factors by offering dignifying professional options to underprivileged young women.

Beneficiaries:

The project have reached two different target groups. The first target group was 60 teen mothers who directly benefited from this initiative. Those teen mothers became role models and unceasing ambassadors of this project to the other underprivileged youth.

The second target group was the empowered 60 former female street vendors, trained in food safety, customer standards and handling, and equipped with basic technology to sell high value products and collect orders on behalf of the consortium’s school farm.

Both groups of beneficiaries will be essential components of this project and will learn significantly. More than 120 people will directly benefit from this project and waves of hundreds others will indirectly.

Below is the summary report for the activities conducted from April 2022 to November 2022.

1. General Overview

Main Project Activities	Planned Activities	Achievements
Establishing farming clubs	Recruiting the schools	Three schools were recruited (Mutunda secondary school, Mwurire secondary school, and Imbazi primary school)
	Recruiting participants students	45 students were recruited as members of the clubs
Training	Theory and Practical Training	Training on Good Agricultural practices and small agricultural enterprise creation
	Establishment of the vegetable garden	Training on Good Agricultural practices and small agricultural enterprise creation
Learning Visits between Clubs from three schools	Learning visits	Six visits were conducted

2. Harvest

#	Crops	G.S.MUTUNDA	E.P Mbazi	G.S Mwurire	Total output (Kg)
		Yield (Kg)	Yield (Kg)	Yield (Kg)
1	Amaranthus (Dodo)	50	70	40	160
2	Carrot	125	75	137	337
3	Onions	130	102	154	386
4	Spinach	324	300	25	649
5	Beetroot	259	143	156	558
6	Onions/puwalo	115	109	165	389
7	Cabbage	0	65	0	65
5	Beetroot	259	143	156	558

Key challenges encountered and measures taken to overcome them

1. Some crops didn’t provide a good harvest such as cabbage, mainly due to pests and type of the soil. Next time we will focus on crips that showed good adaptation in the region such as spinach and Dodo.

2. Limited time for agricultural practical activities by students due to the very packed student curriculum at their schools.

3. Some schools have strict budgeting rules prohibiting them from buying directly from clubs (their rules were that all goods must be bought through). Consequently, we find other payment options, such as removing the feed programming fees for club members and buying agricultural inputs for the club by the school.

Lessons Learned

1. Theoretical and practical sessions from this project raised students’ interest in opportunities in agriculture;

2. Schools are in full support of this project and willing to provide more land for the activities of the project.

3. This project has the potential to contribute to the national school feeding program through the provision of nutritious vegetables to schools

Future plan and sustainability

1. During the project, club members were given start-up toolboxes containing basic agricultural tools that can be used for the next season after the project finished. In addition, a fraction of the money earned from selling harvests to their school kitchen will be used to buy seeds and other agricultural inputs that will be needed. Rwandabiosolution keeps providing technical consultancy.

2. The program was successful, but three schools are too small to provide the meaningful impact intended for the nation, So we are currently actively searching for additional funds to scale up the project to more schools in Rwanda.

3. This project has the potential to contribute to the national school feeding program through the provision of nutritious vegetables to schools