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Mangaliso Lawrence Kabulika
EFFORTS to economically empower the productive age group through sills development continue to gain ground with 1 646 youths recently attending vocational training courses in agricultural skills that are being rolled out by the Smallholder Irrigation Revitalisation Programme (SIRP).
Statistics availed by SIRP and the Department of Agricultural Education indicate that the training was conducted in the four provinces of Matabeleland South, Manicaland, Masvingo and Midlands.
“In total 1646 youths were trained in vocational courses such as market gardening, intensive livestock production, mushroom production, apiculture, bricklaying, welding and fabrication, basic pump and electrical installations, baking and confectionery and garment design, cutting and sewing in provinces of,” read the SIRP statement.
The initial target of 1500 youths that were supposed to be trained by 2023 was eclipsed way back in 2021.
“The total number of youths trained from 2021 to the present 1 646. This means the set target of training 1500 was achieved,” the statement added.
This transformative initiative, carried out in partnership with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), targeted youths and aims to facilitate skills transfers in the agriculture sector through the provision of starter kits upon completion.
“This initiative supports the irrigation and mechanisation efforts being done by the Government in rural development while IFAD is mandated to support youths in agriculture through giving them certificates and starter kits with hardware equipment and tools to start practicing each course upon completion of the training,” Lands, Agriculture, Water and Rural Development youth desk chief programmes coordinator, Mr Nickros Kajengo observed recently.
The decision to do mobile training was taken to improve the attendance of young women who normally find it difficult to travel for such programmes.
“Previous vocational training enrolment cycles have shown that young women’s participation was low in some schemes, for example, in Masvingo and Matabeleland South among others. Therefore, the mobile training was initiated to improve the attendance of the young women at the training courses,” observed Mr Kajengo.
He added: “The mobile training was one of the major recommendations from the IFAD supervisory mission. This was to conduct mobile mop up training targeting schemes in order to close this gap after it emerged that more males had been trained compared to females. Overall, gender inclusive programming may increase participation of rural young women,” he said.
It has since emerged that 369 young women aged 18 to 35 years were trained in 2023 compared to 208 trained in 2021.
The SIRP-Department of Agriculture Education partnership was initiated by IFAD in 2021 with intentions to promote continued agricultural production, food and nutrition security, market access and resilience for communities, which presents an opportunity to build resilience among youths, enhance livelihood opportunities and peaceful co-existence within irrigation schemes.
Online Reporter