The Ministry of Agriculture has called for grant and soft loan applications for youth and women in farming activities as part of the Building a Better Tomorrow: Youth Initiative for Agribusiness (BBT-YIA) programme.
According to the BBT-YIA booklet, the program aims to train 200,000 youths, engage 20,000 of them in internship programs, mentor and coach 15,000 youth-led agribusinesses through incubation programs, and create 12,000 profitable enterprises across 12,000 villages in Tanzania over the course of eight years.
This financial initiative, which will be provided through the Agricultural Input Trust Fund (AGITF), was announced in a call note published on the ministry’s website. The application period for these financial opportunities runs from January 15th, 2023, to April 30th, 2023.
The BBT initiative strives to solve issues, including access to land, money, technology, and markets that young people and women in the agriculture sector confront.
According to the release, the project will offer grants and subsidised loans to young people and women working in commercial crop value chains to foster a thriving and sustainable agribusiness industry.
“To be eligible for the programme, applicants must be a Tanzanian youth aged 18-40 years and have experience in agricultural activities,” the announcement says.
They must also be actively engaged in an agricultural enterprise at the time of application, using land that is theirs or their family’s or rented (with specific conditions for that renting).
In Tanzania, there are approximately 16 million youths, where about 51 per cent are those aged 15-24 years, and another 46.6 per cent are those aged 25-34 years engaged in farming.
The ministry has identified 162,492 acres of arable land for crop production in various regions of the country, including Mbeya, Dodoma, Kagera and Kigoma.
The Tanzanian government is using the BBT programme to support the growth of a thriving agribusiness sector and address the challenges faced by young people and women in the agriculture sector.
The selected beneficiaries will be divided into four clusters: youth entrepreneurs in established agribusinesses, youth entrepreneurs whose agribusinesses are yet to be established, youth trained to be the workforce in established agribusinesses, and youth with no interest in agriculture.
The BBT-YIA programme will be funded through a combination of government resources, development partners, NGOs, and the private sector, with the Ministry of Agriculture serving as the facilitator and coordinator for the BBT-YIA programme.
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