The Rwanda Youth in Agribusiness Forum (RYAF) is a organization started in May of 2016 with the goal of challenging and changing mindsets about agriculture amongst youth. The Forum stands for a platform of young entrepreneurs in Rwanda who are engaged in primary farming and animal rearing, agro-processing, services related to the agricultural value chain development, and information and communications technology (ICT) practitioners in agriculture. The organization strives to change and challenge the mindset of the young generation in order to rejuvenate the sector by creating sustainable solutions to employment in the sector value chains, food and nutritional security while orienting key interventions to the right people as agents of positive transformation of agriculture. The organization is 4,300 members in crop and livestock production, agro-processing, packaging, extension, and other agribusiness sectors.
RYAF's mission is in three parts:
- To facilitate youth in agribusiness to change their mindset
- To promote, inform, advocate, and mobilize Rwandan youth to engage in agribusiness
- To provide technical and financial support and linkages to youth with stakeholders coordination
This presentation shares about RYAF's organizational structure, mission, and discusses four horticultural agribusinesses supported by RYAF. RYAF is becoming a voice for the youth practitioners in the sector, and an avenue for aspiring agripreneurs and agriculturualists to keep aware of opportunities. Despite current achievements, there is a lot to of work to be done, especially with:
- Technical assistance
- Global market access to speed up the transformation and the entire economy.
- High need for information and communications technology to speed up irrigation technologies which pair to water resources management
RYAF is carrying out a mapping activity that will inform exactly the number of youth in different value chains of agribusiness. This will serve as basis for planning both on markets and provide needed interventions as required. The presentation concludes with opportunities and recommendations.
This presentation was given at the 2018 Horticulture Innovation Lab Annual Meeting in Kigali, Rwanda by Jean Baptiste Hategekimana with RYAF.