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.