Govt set to support over 250 000 youth farmers with financing from Mastercard Foundation
Government reaffirmed its commitment of bringing more youths in agriculture by unveiling an ambition plan that will see more than 250 000 youth farmers having access to financing from Mastercard Foundation.
Speaking during the commissioning of Youth Entrepreneurship for the Future of Food and Agriculture (YEFFA) programme in Lilongwe, minister of Agriculture Sam Kawale said since the programme seeks to create more job opportunities in the country’s agriculture sector through supporting the youth farmers.
“Our goal as you know in the Malawi 2063 is to invest heavily in commercial agriculture to increase productivity for domestic consumption as well as value added in order to export, so that we can get the much-needed forex.
“251,000 young people are going to have access of financing from MasterCard Foundation this is not a small amount of young people, it is really significant number who will directly benefit in the four ADD’s in the country, at the end of this programme we are hoping to have more youth who are economically empowered to go into agriculture production,” Kawale said.
The money that has come into this programme from MasterCard Foundation will be managed by AGRA Malawi which is one of the country’s developnment partner who is doing an excellent job to promote agriculture in Malawi and they will be working hand in hand with National Youth Council of Malawi (NYCOM).
AGRA Malawi country’s director Eluphy Nyirenda said they are implementing this programme as one way of adding value into agriculture sector and help to empower more young people to engage into entrepreneurship.
“This is a holistic approach coming from the production of the farm to the time when the product is being sold at a market, so we are looking on the value additional where we can create more jobs.
“You can see that 60 percent of Malawians are the one’s below the age of 35 and these are the one’s going around looking for financing for businesses and it is on the same note that as AGRA Malawi we thought of coming in to help by bringing on bold the youth who are passionate of agriculture and facilitate in adding value,” Nyirenda said.
She also added that to ensure that there is smooth implementation of the programme they have partnered with government to help in facilitating various policies.
AGRA Malawi will implement the five year programme which has a $34 million package from MasterCard Foundation and it is implemented in Lilongwe, Kasungu, Machinga, Salima among other districts.
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