By CTW Team

USIU-Africa’s Global Agribusiness Management and Entrepreneurship (GAME) Centre’s Metro Agri-Food Living Lab project was featured on MKTV on its Agribusiness segment. The feature highlighted GAME Centre’s work in the Metro Agri-Food Living Lab for Gender Inclusive Youth Entrepreneurship Development, which the Centre is currently implementing through Cultivate Africa’s Future (CultiAF), a joint program of the International Development Research Center of Canada (IDRC) and the Australian Center for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR).

Anne Lusweti, a poultry farmer, said that she had struggled with diseases, poultry vaccinations and low sales due to the COVID-19 pandemic. After attending the training, Ms. Lusweti noted that she was now able to improve her business significantly, a sentiment echoed by Mr. Peter Matolo, a horticultural farmer.

“As a horticultural farmer, some of the problems I faced included rotting produce, due to lack of adequate storage, which was worsened by lack of transport. By attending this training, I have been able to learn how to minimize these losses, in addition to strengthening my growing poultry farming business by learning how to make chicken feed in a cost-effective way,” he says.

Speaking to CTW on the trainings, Prof. Amos Njuguna noted that the trainings were critical to small farmers, as they helped them visualize new ways in which they could add to and enrich their existing enterprises.

“Our aim for this project is to reach agricultural value chain actors and train them on governance, leadership and management, business development and financial literacy, risk management and insurance, value addition and market development activities and collective bargaining, all of which play a part in ensuring that they get higher returns from their businesses” he said.

“By the end of these trainings, we hope to have gotten each person to a stage where they become self-reliant, in addition to ensuring the sustainability of their enterprises,” he added.

Geoffrey Oyondi, a dairy farmer from Ikolomani thanked the University for conducting the trainings, noting that he had gained new insights into running his business.

“I have enjoyed attending these seminars as they have given me insights on networking, which I will apply in making my business more visible, in addition to opening up my business to more people. From the trainings, I have also been able to revise my business plan, and identified the areas that I can change to make it more competitive,” he said.

The Metro-Agrifood Living Lab model brings together a unique set of activities and services that create the needed synergy to support not only learning, but also innovation, business development and the co-creation of new knowledge. The project exposes trainees to business concept evaluation and development, business planning, marketing and feasibility studies, linkages to finance and marketing channels, strategic advice and legal assistance, specialized technical assistance and development of business plans to be presented to potential financiers.

To watch the video, click here.