Expanding Business Opportunities for Youth in the Fish and Poultry Sectors in Kenya (CultiAF)
This project will build skills and knowledge among young people in Kenya to develop innovative business models that increase their participation in the fisheries and poultry sub-sectors. Youth and agri-business in Kenya While promoting agri-business opportunities and youth employment in agriculture is a priority in Kenya, there is limited evidence of successful business models that benefit youth and scale up results from research. Kenya's growing urbanization has opened opportunities in the fish and poultry sectors for rural and urban youth to generate income. Young people have the potential to bring resourcefulness, technological savvy,, and organizational capacity to the sub-sector. Training, mentoring, support The project will use different training methods (classroom training, practical case methods, field visits, and business simulations) to develop skills among youth to engage in poultry and fish sector businesses. It will build on an existing and highly successful entrepreneurship-training program and adapt the content to address the needs of agri-food entrepreneurs. The project will provide support to a selected group of aspiring young entrepreneurs, linking them to more experienced entrepreneurs for mentoring, innovation support, and business development services. Ideas to innovate and grow Project participants will work with research teams in an ongoing project that is developing insect feeds for fish and poultry. Youth will learn to develop and implement innovative business models for insect, poultry, and fish rearing, and poultry and fish feeds. The project team will select and train aspiring agri-food entrepreneurs with business ideas that have the potential to grow and succeed. The lessons will be relevant to other agriculture and food security projects, especially those that aim to work with youth entrepreneurs. The project brings together the United States International University-Africa based in Kenya, Michigan State University, Van Hall Larenstein University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands, and Licence to Grow, a private company, to test and promote an entrepreneurship development model that combines training, business innovation, and action research. Project leadership This project is funded through the Cultivate Africa's Future Fund (CultiAF), a joint program of the Australian International Food Security Research Centre of the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research and IDRC. CultiAF supports research to achieve long-term food security in Eastern and Southern Africa.
Project ID
108072
Project Status
Completed
End Date
Duration
18 months
IDRC Officer
Jemimah Njuki
Total Funding
CA$ 427,200.00
Location
Kenya
Programs
Agriculture and Food Security
Cultivate Africa's Future
Institution Country
Kenya
Project Leader
Karen Musikoyo - Nguru
Institution
United States International University
Outputs
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Expanding business opportunities for youth in the fish and poultry sectors in Kenya : project profile Brief
This one-page profile describes the aims of the project to build the capacity of youths in Kenya to engage in poultry and fish businesses by using multiple training methods (classroom and practical training; field visits and business simulations). The Agri-food Living Lab will improve the experiential learning experience of young agri-food entrepreneurs by carrying out real-life training (education), business development (market, management, industry linkages) and research (especially action research). Author(s): Wrenmedia Language: English |
Varsity-led plan to spur agribusiness Article
The article features the United States International University Africa in Kenya (USIU Africa) which is partnering with the Netherlands (Van Hall Larenstein University of Applied Sciences) in an agribusiness entrepreneurial program called “License to Grow.” This one-page snapshot appears in a Kenyan newspaper regarding part of “Expanding Business Opportunities for Youth in the Fish and Poultry Sectors in Kenya,” a CultiAF project (Cultivate Africa’s Future). Author(s): Umidha, Steve Language: English |
Gender inclusion in the establishment of youth agribusinesses Brief
The project took measures to ensure that young women were provided with the facilities to enable them to participate. For example, during business counseling, women received support at their homes in order to increase their retention rate in the program, and to address the key issue of mobility that often reduces women’s ability to attend training programs. The 39 selected youths attended an intensive business training course with the United States International University Africa (USIU). The women participants’ business plans detailed a desire to empower communities through the establishment of social enterprises more so than the men. Author(s): Nguru, Karen M., Asena, Salome E., Sikalieh, Damary, Muriithi, Jane, Khamati, Philip Language: English |
Expanding business opportunities for youth in the fish and poultry sectors in Kenya : policy brief Brief
The project achieved a 90% business launch success rate of youth ventures in the fish and poultry sectors. It provided a platform for young men and women to develop new products and market them, helping to support the growth of successful enterprises, along with networking opportunities for young entrepreneurs. It tested the Metro AgriFood Living Lab model as an effective model for enhancing business opportunities for youth in the fish and poultry sectors in Kenya. This involves training, business innovation services and action research. Female participants had more entrepreneurial characteristics associated with launching a successful business plan. Author(s): Wrenmedia Language: English |
Sh33m grant to enhance youth employment Article
The article provides an overview of the CultiAF project (Cultivate Africa’s Future) “Expanding Business Opportunities for Youth in the Fish and Poultry Sectors in Kenya,” a joint undertaking by the IDRC and United States International University Africa in Kenya (USUI) – Africa Global Agribusiness Management and Entrepreneurship (GAME) Centre. The grant is for Sh33m (33 million Kenyan Shillings KES) to field test innovative business models for taking agricultural innovations to scale and to support youth engagement. Author(s): Michira, Moses Language: English |
Inclusion des femmes dans la création d'entreprises agroalimentaries gérées par des jeunes Dossiers
Author(s): Nguru, Karen M., Asena, Salome E., Sikalieh, Damary, Muriithi, Jane, Khamati, Philip Language: French |
Expanding business opportunities for African youth in agricultural value chains in Southern Africa Brief
The aim of the project is to generate and test novel business models that increase the participation of youth in the fish and maize post-harvest agribusiness sectors in Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Training materials were developed and used to scale up successful entrepreneurial start-ups. Youth from rural areas were generally more interested in progressing their businesses than urban youth who were previously employed. The policy brief describes the project, participants, methodology and results. Overall, gender inclusion remains challenging. Author(s): Wrenmedia Language: English |
Expanding business opportunities for youth in the fish and poultry sectors in Kenya - final technical report Report
This 18 month pilot project tested for activities that could scale up and help youths and women establish profitable agribusinesses in the fish and poultry sector. For evaluation, the research identified three levels of criteria for assessing business launches; a) acquisition of resources to support new ventures within existing businesses; b) acquisition of resources to support start-up businesses; and c) acquisition of legal documents and networks to start making sales or increase sales. The project achieved a 90% success rate of youth who launched ventures, with 60% women participants. As well, sociocultural and economic barriers were revealed during the project. Author(s): Musikoyo, Karen, Wambalaba, Francis, Peterson, Christopher, Asena, Salome Language: English |