Makerere University’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CAES) held a dialogue with partners under the ACCELERATE Initiative. The theme of the dialogue focused on how the two institutions can collaborate to support youth engaging in agribusiness and related innovations.
ACCELERATE Initiative is a multi-stakeholder partnership for innovation and co-creation that enables youth to build sustainable agribusiness informed by evidence-based research and with a global presence, according to officials.
According to an official statement on the university website, they want to initiate Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) which will help in identifying how they can improve the capacity and competitiveness of the youth in Agri-food value chains, hence tackling the challenges of unemployment in Uganda with a global perspective.
Dr. John James Okiror, the acting principal CAES, says the university supports such collaborative efforts in solving modern challenges, including finding solutions to issues affecting the youth.
Dr. Fred Kabi, the program coordinator at the University says innovation and entrepreneurship can be one of the solutions to the hard questions of how the university gets involved in solving the current challenge of unemployment in Uganda.
“The major aim of this platform is to ask a very hard question. How can we as a university get involved in solving the current challenge of unemployment in Uganda? And we feel innovation and entrepreneurship can be one of the solutions and therefore this platform is seeking for a paradigm shift in training so that we are able to produce graduates who are innovative and entrepreneurial,” he said as quoted in the official statement.
Must read: Ugandan scientists stand up for GMOs amid public worries
Dr. Kabi says that they want to engage the government under this initiative in order to establish regional incubation centers that can help nurture talent and support innovation at an early stage. The government is already working on this.
According to Dr. Kabi, they have been around the country visiting farmers and markets with innovations and organizations involved in value addition like roasting coffee and packaging so that they can discover their challenges and how to address them.
They have also arranged programs where university students and other innovators are exposed to experienced entrepreneurs to enlighten them on what lies ahead in their careers.
“Students do not have to dig, they can see what others are doing; package it in an enticing manner to reach internal and external markets. We are trying to expose students and also invite inspirational speakers and this is crucial,” he said, adding: “Overall, it is because of the high levels of unemployment that we thought we need a paradigm shift in training. But needed to feel the signals, that is, the market. We invited MUBS because they understand the aspect of international markets better.”
He further disclosed that the CAES had come up with a mobility exchange program with Erasmus Mundus where Makerere University students on both undergraduate and postgraduate programmes will benefit.
Officials and students also visited Makerere University Food Technology and Business Incubation Centre (FTBIC), the University Farm at Kabanyolo and the Consortium for enhancing University Responsiveness to Agribusiness Development Limited (CURAD) center.
Other sites visited included organic farmers at Prunes Kololo and Gudies Leisure Farm in Najjera.
The workshop was attended by members from Makerere University, the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, the Uganda Agribusiness Alliance, the Agripreneurship Alliance (Switzerland), Gulu University and RUFORUM.
Others include Rural Community in Development (RUCID), The Open Impact Institute, representatives from the private sector, development agencies, and youth agripreneurship programs among others.
More on agritechs:
New harvesting technology excites rice farmers
New app to reshape rice farming in Africa
