Government allocates 160,000 acres for youth in farming sector

Dodoma. The government has set aside 160,000 acres for the start of youth farms, expected to benefit over 40,000 young people.

Speaking in an interview recently, agriculture minister Hussein Bashe said the programme is part of the implementation of the goals of the 10/30 agenda.

The lands will be found in Dodoma, Mbeya, Kigoma and Kagera regions while other fertile areas are being searched for the same purpose.

Mr Bashe said the agenda will not be successful if a large group of young people is left behind and that is why the programme has been directed to those areas.

According to the minister, the 40,000 young people serve as a pilot project but the government will expand the programme further to reach more young people, who will also be engaged in agricultural activities.

“We have already started to clear out those acres and we see that the intention and the demand is huge, so we decided not to wait; rather, we start with what we have,” said Mr Bashe.

The minister said that the programme is known as ‘Building a Better Tomorrow’ (BBT) and that apart from allocating the acres to the youth, dams will be constructed and boreholes drilled in some areas for them.

He said each young person will own 5 to 10 acres for 66 years and issued with title deeds prepared jointly by the Ministry of Land and Human Settlements and Councils.

“In each of those areas with a large youth farm, there will be a big investor, who will be allocated land, issued with a title deed and other infrastructure created for him. His job will be to guarantee us a market by buying and adding value to the crops of the youth,” said Mr Bashe.

As a result of the program, he said the issues of the shortage of markets and capital empowerment will no longer be there, explaining that the title deeds could help them.

He mentioned getting capital as the main reason that hinders young people from progressing, saying that they are required to have things that serve as collateral whenever they seek loans from financial institutions.

However, the ministry clarified that the program is not going to phase out small-scale farmers and instead, it is going to strengthen them because the latter will benefit by imitating the young people, especially by adding value to their crops.

In the program, Standard Seven leavers and graduates will benefit as a total of three million young people aged 18 to 40 will be reached.

The head of the Bihawana Youth Training Centre, Mr Emmanuel Mtenga, said the young people who will be selected will join a three-month training program in the prepared centres, including the Bihawana centre.

Mr Mtenga said the centres are designed to make young people get out of theoretical agriculture and instead, engage them in practical agriculture, whose success will be easier.

He said the young people will also be used to help the farmers around them.