KCIC<\/a>). It\u2019s funded by the European Union, alongside the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark (DANIDA), the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and African Development Bank.<\/p>\n\n\n\nOther counties where incubation hubs will be\ncreated are Isiolo, Kilifi and Lamu. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The AgriBiz project is expected to uplift Kenya\u2019s\nfood security and contribute strongly to manufacturing, given the strong upward\nand downward value chain linkages of the agricultural sector. Agriculture is\nKenya\u2019s economic backbone, accounting for more than a quarter of the country\u2019s\ngross domestic product (GDP) and employing more than half of the population.\nBut sections of the country still grapple with perennial food scarcity amid low\nmechanisation and value addition in the sector which is mostly rain-fed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Food security is one of President Uhuru Kenyatta\u2019s\nfour development pillars (Big 4 agenda), alongside manufacturing, healthcare\nand housing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Speaking at the event, the EU Ambassador to Kenya\nSimon Mordue said that agri-business can be a rewarding venture for Kenyan\nyouth and women with the right training and access to funds. By opening\nopportunities in agribusiness, he said, the campaign would offer a lifeline to\nunemployed youths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe expect these companies to prosper, create some\n17,000 jobs (direct 4,000, indirect 13,000), enable over 200,000 smallholder\nfarmers to access markets, services and inputs thus driving growth of the\nKenyan economy, and providing an excellent example for many others,\u201d Mordue\nsaid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAgriBiz was jointly designed by the EU, the\nGovernment of Kenya and the implementing partners to provide concrete business\nand employment opportunities for two of the most overlooked categories of agri-preneurs\n\u2013 youth and women.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The EU said that a further Sh17.6 billion will be\noffered in loans to agribusinesses through local financial institutions under\nthe African Guarantee Fund.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Presently, the average age of a Kenyan farmer is\n59, as most youth shun the sector, perceived to be dirty and unrewarding, a\nsituation the AgriBiz project seeks to turn around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yet some 1.2 million young Kenyans enter the job\nmarket every year, with the economy only being able to create about 100,000\nformal jobs yearly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On his part, the Danish Ambassador to Kenya Mette\nKnudsen said: \u201cThe AgriBiz programme holds a promise of sustainable and decent\njobs for women and youth in agricultural value chains. It reflects the wishes\nfor a more equal and greener future.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Besides creating jobs and boosting food output, the\nproject is expected to help promote gender equality and inclusive growth as\nwell as support climate change adaptation and climate innovation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe alignment to the FAO strategic focus and the\nGovernment of Kenya is required and should be able to bring around the focus\nfrom \u2018farm to fork\u2019 but also to foster sustainable land and natural resource\nmanagement for the future,” said FAO country representative Tobias\nTakavarasha.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kenya Climate Innovation Center (KCIC) CEO Edward\nMungai said: \u201cThere\u2019s a silent revolution taking place in Kenya with hundreds\nof young people and women farmers abandoning traditional ways of farming in\nfavour of innovation and technology-led farming and this is what this program\nwill augment.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the same time, Machakos Governor Alfred Mutua\nsaid his county government would provide land to youth and women admitted into\nthe programme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTo show my commitment, there is the issue of\naccess to land by youth and women. My\ngovernment is going to provide our county land free of charge to the youth and\nwomen of our county to take care of the issues of land for as long as they are\nworking with you,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His Bungoma counterpart said: \u201cThis programme will tackle one of the biggest issues in this country which unemployment. By merging the two groups- women and youth under the age of 35, the program would be targeting about 90 percent of the population; which is made up of 50 percent women and 75 percent youth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Read also:<\/strong> Kenyan Female Inventor Taps Drinking Water From Air<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Some 2,400 businesses run by Kenyan women and youth in the agricultural sector will receive funding and training in a Ksh5.1 billion (\u20ac44.4 million) programme led by the European Union.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":8525,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[89],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economic-responsibility"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8523\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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