Growing over 200 Youth Agripreneurs in Uganda

The Agcelerate 2020 workshop went ahead as planned on August 13 & 14 with a total of 250 participants mainly students, recent graduates and young agripreneurs. 170 participants logged-on individually via Zoom and a further 90 were present physically in 4 Hub locations in Uganda at the Marula Creative Consultancy and Makerere University Business School in Kampala, Gulu University and Bishop’s Stuart University in Mbarara.  Thus the target to help grow over 200 current and aspiring agripreneurs was reached.

The theme was Agribusiness in a Changing Climate– Day 1 focused on the Changing Business Climate especially related to the COVID-19 pandemic and Day 2 related to Adaptation to Climate Change in Agriculture. There were some extremely inspiring speakers such as Edgar Kasenene the COO of Idex Africa who challenged the participants to “reskill and create new value in the new operating environment”. There was also a panel discussion with leading Ugandan personalities including Professor Maggie Kigozi, Emmanuel Okalany of RUFORUM and Nicholas Ssebalamu of Field of Hope. We also heard from several young agripreneurs (who have participated in previous Agcelerate LABs) on their progress and how they have adapted to COVID-19. See for example Steven Balyejjusa of Mercy Farms, Mityana in the photo above who, in addition to his wine business, now has a flourishing mushroom farm.  Hillary Nahurira  (Active Living, Mbarara) who had a growing business producing lemon after-shave was faced with a difficult situation when barbers shops were closed due to the pandemic.  He rapidly adapted to the situation and started producing hand sanitisers and disinfectants and his business has grown very significantly.

On Day 2 there was a very inspiring call to action by Vanessa Nakete, a global climate change activist who studied at MUBS, as well as practical information on various means to adapt to climate change. The entire 2-day event was highly interactive through live Q&A, the Zoom chat function and group work discussions that were held in the Hubs and virtually on the Zoom platform.

A survey has been conducted to determine the subjects of most interest to organise further on-line practical sessions. Top subjects were poultry farming, food safety and organic fertilisers and pesticides. These sessions will be organised in the coming months.

Obviously the COVID-19 pandemic has had a big impact on our activities.  The AGCELERATE LAB planned for the week of August 10, 2020 cannot be organised as face to face Events.  So we have decided to plan a virtual workshop on August 13 and 14.  The 2020 theme "Agribusiness in a Changing Climate" still fits perfactly with the current situation.  Day 1 will be focused on the changing business climate - light of COVID-19 and Day 2 on the changing climate with respect to weather patterms.  We are building a very exciting and dynamic programme comprising of  keynote speakers, panel discussions and testimonies from young agriprenurs as well as practical sessions on adapting agricultural systems to climate change.  As far as possible, we will gather the young people in smaller groups in various locations in Uganda to ensure they have the connectivity they need to follow the Event, and also to permit as much networking and sharing as possible.  If the situation permits, we will organise one, or several, Boot Camps at demonstration farms  later in the year.