Rwandan youth engaged in agriculture have been urged to showcase their projects to be able to stand a chance of winning a prize in a competition that has been organized by Rwanda Organic Agriculture Movement (ROAM) in partnership with an international non-profit organization called Access Agriculture. The prizes to win go up to Rwf4 million, according to organisers. The Chief Executive Officer of ROAM, Lise Chantal Dusabe shed more light on how this project will work. “Young farmers will submit their agricultural projects to Access Agriculture and only four will be picked. There will be a mentorship programme where they will learn more on entrepreneurship in agriculture and be given materials or their prizes to be used in implementing their projectors” she said. “Their work or videos will be shared on the Access Agriculture platform, this is an international platform that showcases agricultural works from all around the world, this will be a chance to show the agriculture of young Rwandans and also help them to be marketed on an international level,” Dusabe said. Speaking to The New Times, Etienne Niyigaba the founder and CEO of Youth Engagement in Agriculture Network (YEAN) a network that spreads agriculture information to young people to lead in transforming agriculture ideas into agribusiness, said this project will go a long way in promoting innovation across the agriculture value chain. “We have a tendency where more and more farmers are relying on technology in their field, and with the use of videos from Access Agriculture platform, it will help them in venturing into new projects while having adequate information,” he said. According to him, “having more local young farmers showcasing our very own agriculture practices and in our local language on such a huge platform will help more farmers in our country to develop in their fields, without forgetting the aspect where this will help in the innovation and showcasing more ideas from young people in agriculture.
