By Julius Omondi
Kenya: Popular hip hop artist Juliani and Amiran Kenya have launched an initiative to lure over 10 million unemployed youth into new age farming. The move is aimed at reversing the perception that the venture is for the old.
The company has partnered with gospel musician Julius Owino popularly known as “Juliani”.
The idea was hatched at a national youth event on food security organised by Vision 2030, where Juliani gave an inspiring speech that moved the audience, most of whom were young.
“We were touched by his humble and inspiring speech and thought that if he could inspire us at our age, then inspiring the youth would be an easy task,” noted Yariv Kedar the deputy managing director of Amiran Kenya.
He said the company decided to use Juliani due to his popular appeal, which has commanded a fanatical following among the youth.
He added that Juliani’s task is to prove to the youth that you don’t have to possess highly technical skills to be a successful farmer.
Low-cost kit
The initiative, which will run for six months will see Juliani traverse different parts of the country for awareness. Julian has already been trained on using the kit and has even installed a smaller version of it in his backyard.
“I have received the right training and understood that one can be a smart farmer using correct farm inputs like drip kits, fertiliser and hybrid seeds on a small piece of land. You can earn a good living by getting 10 times more yields,” explained Juliani.
“I want to debunk the myth among the youth that white collar jobs are the only basis of success.” Amiran’s Managing Director Pinhas Moskovich said. “The youth should embrace agriculture to stem rising rates of unemployment. We don’t want to see frustrated youths due to joblessness and hunger yet the country has the potential to embrace agriculture and feed the entire nation in addition to exporting,” he added.
He said that Israel, which is a fraction of the size of Kenya, has been able to feed its population as well as position itself as one of Europe’s leading providers of food. The programme has also put into consideration that most young people have limited access to finance.
“To ensure the success of this programme, we have introduced an open field kit retailing at Sh14,000 which we hope that the young generation can afford and start with as it is possible to start small and grow big,” explained Moskovich.
The kit comes with a drip kit, seeds of one’s choice and fertiliser. The youths are also poised to benefit from this open field kits as Amiran will use various youth groups around the country to retail them.
Various youth groups will purchase the kits at a wholesale price from the firm and sell them at the retail price of Sh14,000 to farmers.
—FarmBizAfrica
