Introduction

The Entrepreneurship Training Program (ETP) for young innovators is a sustainable initiative established in May 2023 by Mrutu Agro-Solutions Company Limited of Tanzania, Grace Mission Foundation (Tanzania), and Peace University of United States of America (USA). The aim of this program is to stimulate, activate, attract, encourage and enable young men and women in Tanzania to participate fully in undertaking various economic activities through establishing of innovative enterprises in the agriculture sector and in agro-processing. These will assist in employment creation and as well as income generation for the beneficiaries.
The institutions which are establishing this program are committed to support this program through resource mobilization, training and capacity building in enterprise development and later linking to financial services as well as market for the products produced by these innovative enterprises.
The overall purpose of this program is to work with the young men and women in enterprise development in order to assist them in developing their technical and entrepreneurial knowledge so that they become future job creators and accelerate commercialization of agricultural knowledge and innovations in Tanzania and become a source of market/sectoral linkages through supply of raw materials from the agricultural sector.

Objectives

The overall objective is to establish a short courses training program (SCTP) and which are tailor made depending on the needs of the target youths and women with the aim of strengthening entrepreneurship and agribusiness activities. This programme will eventually contribute to increased productivity and income, employment creation, sustainably managed farm businesses, increased acreage and agricultural production as well as improved service delivery to farmers.

Specific objectives of the program are as follows:

• i. To develop and provide/offer market driven short course training in entrepreneurship, good agricultural and livestock keeping practices;
• ii. To develop and provide/offer market-led agricultural technologies suitable for different agro-ecological zones in Tanzania;
• iii. To develop and provide/offer training on post-harvest handling of agricultural produce in Tanzania
• iv. To develop and provide/offer training on markets, market development and value chain linkages in Tanzania;
• v. To develop and provide/offer training on food security and sustainable agriculture production in Tanzania;
• vi. To develop and provide/offer training on utilization of renewable natural resources in Tanzania;
• vii. To develop and provide/offer training on production and utilization of renewable energy in Tanzania;
• viii. To develop and provide/offer training on environmental conservation and climate change effects; and
• ix. To train and link young men and women to agriculture and value chain financing; and
• x. To train and mentor young men and women towards farming as a business in Tanzania.

Expected program outcomes are as follows:

• i. Entrepreneurship, agriculture and livestock production and development enhanced through market-led technological development and adoption of improved technologies for improving livelihoods;
• ii. Youth (men and women) unemployment rate reduced in Tanzania;
• iii. Food secured households and community increased;
• iv. Integrated agriculture for sustainable development enhanced;
• v. Sustainable utilization of renewable natural resources in Tanzania enhanced;
• vi. Increased utilization of renewable energy;
• vii. Agricultural produce market linkages expanded;
• viii. Access to agricultural and value chain finance increased; and
• ix. A number of young men and women engaged in agriculture, agribusiness and livestock keeping increased.