In contributing to youth inclusion and development, ENABLE TAAT organized an Open Day that provided a good networking forum for farmers and youth in Tanzania to share different knowledge and ideas about agribusiness at various capacities. as a means of developing their capacity, promoting, and showcasing youth agricultural products to increase their income.
The Open Day brought together stakeholders from different sectors including financial institutions.
One of such financial institution is Equity bank where the loan officer, Clara Nyanusi advised the youths and farmers to work in groups in order to facilitate quick access to loans to advance their agribusiness activities. The bank also promised to provide loans to all youth who formed cooperative groups.
“Our main goal is to help young people achieve their dreams, so we pledge to provide them with helpful loans. Our best initiative is to encourage all young people who have not yet formed cooperative groups to do so and give us their proposal so that we can provide them with a loan according to their needs.” she said.
In addressing marketing challenges, Dar es salaam Regional Agriculture Officer, Dr. Elizabeth Mshote stressed the importance of engaging experts in also resolving issues related to marketing which is also one of the challenges facing farmers. “If we want to solve our marketing problems, we need to strengthen close cooperation with marketing officers and business officers so that they can tell us what is needed and what we are supposed to do in order to reach the needed target.” Dr. Mshote stated.
Moreover, the participants visited the demonstration fields to observe and learn from various activities conducted by youths and experts. The youth and farmers noted that the event gave them the opportunity to interact with experts and find solution to some challenges encountered during production. Rosemary Mbaga, one of the youth participants said, “This exhibition has inspired me a lot to be consistent in my agribusiness establishment, and I urge IITA to continue with this initiative so that more young people can benefit from it.”