By Kimuri Mwangi
The Kenya National Farmers’ Federation (KENAFF) has certified 22 Agribusiness (b|u|s) Trainers after extensive training. KENAFF is implementing the agribusiness training in partnership with Andreas Hermes Akademie (AHA from Germany.
The federation is also a major player in the country’s agricultural sector initiatives including the Agricultural Sector Transformation and Growth Strategy (ASTGS) and the Kenya Kwanza government’s focus on bottom-up transformation that seeks to empower farmers at all levels
The agribusiness (b|u|s) training commenced in October 2022, and over the past year, it has been conducted in over 10 counties with about 400 farmers. The agribusiness trainers program includes training in the b|u|s concept with practical simulations, training sessions with farmers carried out by the training group, popularly known as field exercises, and roll-outs (training sessions with farmers at the counties).
The training has majorly targeted smallholder farmers and seeks to shift their thinking and socialization not only as producers, but as entrepreneurs and changemakers in their communities. Ultimately, it is expected that farmers’ thinking shall be transformed into an entrepreneurial mindset as they’re shown how to generate sufficient income for themselves and their families over the long term.
“We’ve been here today at a certification ceremony for young people going through specialized training in agribusiness which we’ve been doing together with our strategic partner from Germany called Andreas Hamis Academy (AHA). This training has been happening over the past two years. I would say it started with about 40 trainers and today we are certifying 22 who have qualified through a very rigorous process of the certification process. The idea behind this is the realization that farmers need particular skills to enhance their enterprises so that they can earn more money and improve their quality of life. This is something that Andreas Hamis Academy has been doing in the Federal Republic of Germany for a long time and now has been brought to us through KENAFF to support the agriculture sector,” said Mwendah M’Mailutha the CEO of KENAFF.
He added that the only way to sustain the benefits that would come from transforming the sector is if we can get young people to participate saying in Kenya there is a challenge with employment opportunities for young people but at the same time there are a lot of opportunities in the agriculture sector.
“The b|u|s entrepreneurship training consists of three modules. So, at KENAFF we have trained b|u|s 1 and 2. b|u|s 1 is more about personal capacity, about myself, my responsibility as a farmer, and as a member of a community and module 2 is more about my business, business plans, SWOT analysis and all those things about the business. We firmly believe that farmers who are also entrepreneurs are better suited to face the challenges the farming sector is offering them,” said Zara Granes the Program Manager at Andreas Hermes Akademie.
