Scaling Commercialization of Drought Tolerant Crops (DTC) Technologies to Secure Dignified and Fulfilling Work for Youth in Rural Kenya
Target Impact
Enabling young people to be seed multipliers, creating their employment as they make Drought-Resistant Crops (DTC) seeds available in arid and semi-arid areas of Kenya. This program focuses in these nine counties, Busia, Homabay, Siaya, Elgeyo Marakwet, Machakos, Makueni, Kitui, Tharaka Nithi, Meru and Taita Taveta. Young women are strongly encouraged to apply.
Status: Active
Country
Kenya
Period
August 2022 – July 2027
Industries
Agriculture
Impact to Date
The program is still in the inception stages.
Partnership Focus
Young women and men joining the program are supported to start successful businesses as producers and marketers of drought-tolerant grains/crops like sorghum, groundnuts, finger millet, pigeon peas, green grams, and pearl millet.
The program has introduced mechanized farming techniques and supports value-added processes such as processing, packaging, and branding of drought-tolerant crop products. This is so young people can be producers or farmers or start businesses in these other areas.
In addition to technical skills, they receive business training and are linked with financial institutions for funding (loans) to enable them to start and run their businesses successfully.
Through this program young people are helping address food security and nutrition challenges in Kenya, especially in the arid and semi-arid areas. They also support seed multiplication and distribution using community seed banks through collaborations with research institutions like the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO), and Egerton University. Partnerships with private sector companies such as Jetlink and Jufra Foods also help to market grains effectively. This ensures high-quality seed availability for local farmers and enhances economic opportunities within the community.
In Partnership With
Africa Harvest is an African organization with a vision of making Africa free of hunger using science and technology, gender-sensitive appropriate agricultural technologies, and innovative approaches to improve the livelihoods of rural communities, particularly smallholder farmers. By bridging theoretical knowledge with practical impact, Africa Harvest promotes sustainable growth in agricultural communities through technology transfer, training for increased productivity, and inclusive marketing strategies shared with other organizations for large-scale impact.
For more information visitl: africaharvest.org