AGRICULTURE Minister, Mr Hussein Bashe has been moved by the youths under the government’s Building a Better Tomorrow: Youth Initiative for Agribusiness (BBT-YIA) programme who have started harvesting and selling their produce from the farms.
The youths have been selling their produce at the Bihawana Youth Training Centre in Dodoma.
Speaking to some of the young people who met him on Monday in Dodoma for thanksgiving and showing their produce, Mr Bashe said he was pleased with the results and the readiness of BBT youth.
“The BBT programme aims to address young people and women’s challenges in the agriculture sector. What you have just presented today shows how successful the programme is and I am impressed. Your readiness is pleasing,” he said.
Minister Bashe further encouraged the young people to expand the scope of distributing their harvests to various areas in Dodoma, including public offices, to meet demand of the consumers.
One of the beneficiaries of the programme, Ms Asia Msuya, thanked President Samia Suluhu Hassan for encouraging young people and women to participate in agricultural activities.
Ms Msuya explained that through the BBT programme, she gained agricultural knowledge and is now ready to farm professionally and earn income.
Another youth, Mr Razaki Mbaraka, said their group started delivering produce to consumers directly, a move that enables them to sell profitably and avoid middlemen.
“This is after we gained the knowledge about crop business that helps us avoid challenges that could have been experienced when using middlemen,” he said.
Mr Mbaraka thanked the minister for motivating the young people to join BBT, which has proved success, so far.
In January this year, the Ministry of Agriculture announced a call for grant and soft loan applications for youth and women in agriculture.
According to the BBT-YIA booklet, over eight years, the programme aims to achieve 12,000 profitable enterprises across 12,000 villages in Tanzania.
This is done by training 200,000 youths and engaging 20,000 young people in internship programmes, as well as mentoring and coaching 15,000 youth-led agribusinesses through incubation programmes.