Grace Nyiramboneyehose started a small poultry farming business with 50 chickens in 2018, but lost 20 of them because of lack of poultry farming skills. With the poultry farming skills acquired from the Rural Youth Employment Support (R -YES) project, the young lady is now hopeful that these will protect her from incurring such losses once she engages in the business again. The Bugesera District resident said that her dual-purpose chicken of SASSO breed, which are reared for both eggs and meat production, died as a result of a coop that was in poor conditions. With limited skills, I did not know the disease that was affecting my chickens, nor did I know how to effectively tackle it, she told The New Times on Friday, May 20, 2022, during an interview that was held at Integrated Polytechnic Regional College Gishari (IPRC Gishari) in Eastern Province’s Rwamagana District. The death of my chickens discouraged me, so I decided to stop rearing the birds until I got the needed skills for a successful poultry venture, she said. She indicated that the skills she got including poultry farm management, sourcing quality eggs to hatching, taking care of day-old chicks, proper feeding, and disease control, have rekindled her hope to do poultry farming again. Nyiramboneyehose is one of the 339 young people, from 16 districts across the country, who are right now receiving the training in the first cohort of the R-YES project. On Friday, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) technical team from Rome concluded their five-day visit to the Rwanda Agribusiness Hub to provide implementation support to the IFAD grant project (R-YES), monitor its performance and impacts to beneficiaries. Their exercise ended by visiting the IPRC Gishari, an R-YES grant project partner in Operation and Maintenance of Field Irrigation and Poultry farming. The 5-year R-YES project (June 2020 - December 2024) is funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) to create employment opportunities for youth in agribusiness. It is implemented by a consortium led by Kilimo Trust Rwanda. Other consortium members include the Rwanda Youth in Agribusiness Forum (RYAF) and Rwanda Polytechnic (RP) - with Integrated Polytechnic Regional Colleges (IPRCs), TVETs and agribusiness industries as centres of training. It targets seven agribusiness value chains with potential to attract and provide decent employment (self and wage) to youth in agribusiness. The value chains are Dairy, Piggery, Potatoes, Maize, Rice, Poultry, Vegetables (chilli, green pepper, and French beans). Another beneficiary of the project, Sylver Munyabugingo, a resident of Kayonza District in Eastern Province, said that the pressing problem is that the area faces scarce rainfall – and is prone to drought – which negatively affects farm productivity. Last year, I lost half of my tree tomato harvest to drought as I only got 100 kilogrammes of the fruit compared to 200 kilogrammes I would harvest from the same land, he said. Fortunately, he said that he has acquired irrigation skills that will help him grow crops in all seasons without relying on rain-fed agriculture. Beneficiaries were trained on various irrigation technologies including surface, drip, and sprinkler irrigation, which have different advantages depending on the crops in question. With the skills we got in irrigation systems, we are able to grow crops in all seasons without fear of losing our investments, which can ensure sustainable food security, a surplus for the market and get considerable income, Munyabugingo said. An innovative, promising project Andrew Gashayija, R-YES Project Team Leader said that they have realised that this model and partnership with TVET institutions is important in helping the youth to enter the labour market and become entrepreneurs, or be good employees at already established companies as they have the required skills. “We have been impressed by the amount of achievement that the youth have so far because in different places where we have been, we have seen that these youths have been able to make quite a number of products. Those in milk processing, for instance, at IPRC Musanze have a number of [dairy] products they can put on the market,” he said. So far, he said that some companies have committed to provide jobs to the youth being trained; indicating that some have even offered them jobs before they complete the training. Those who want to run their own businesses will be supported with developing viable business plans and collateral from the Business Development Fund (BDF) so that they secure financing. This move, Gashayija said, will also help address the failure rate of young people’s start-ups which has been one of the issues of concern. Tom Anyonge, Acting Director of Environment, Climate, Gender and Social Inclusion Division at IFAD Headquarters in Rome observed that it is a good model that potential employers in the [project] ecosystem are actually involved in curriculum development, but also in the training of the youth. “So far, the three incubation centres that we have visited are very promising, and we’ve already seen very good value for money,” he said, applauding the partnership between Kilimo Trust, the Government of Rwanda and other local stakeholders for partnering with IFAD. “Such an innovative partnership where it holds the future for expanding the number of jobs in the agribusiness sector, that can be good for young women and men.” It is to note that overall, R-YES project goal is to contribute to sustainable employment (self and decent wage) and income generating opportunities for 3,000 youth in agriculture-related activities in Rwanda, through an integrated agribusiness hub. This project, which is considered a pilot, is investing slightly over Rwf2 billion and its success will inform future extended initiatives by IFAD and other development partners in Rwanda and other countries in Africa and beyond. Some of the young trainees irrigate vegetables under R-YES project showing how drip irrigation technology works at IPRC Gishari in Eastern Province, May 20, 2022. Some young poultry farming trainees under the Rural Youth Employment Support (R -YES) project at IPRC Gishari) in Eastern Province’s Rwamagana District where they were acquiring skills, May 20, 2022. / Courtesy photo
