AGRICULTURE 4 AFRICA (A4A)?

A4A was given a new challenge: launch a second cohort of 30 incarcerated youth during the second harvest cycle add a livestock, fisheries and animal husbandry production opportunity, and this time on 5,000 square meters of the Prison’s land. Cohort 2 began the Agripreneur journey with new modalities for teaching as Cohort 1 Agripreneurs served as trainers and role models to the new cohort.

Specific Activities

• Classroom education: Regenerative agriculture and short cycle production methods for select crops including maize, tomatoes, cabbage, pepper, lettuce, soya beans, and training for poultry, pigs and fish farming.

• Field methods: Application of sustainable classroom learning to eco-friendly practice including clearing, planting, harvesting, and integrated pest management.

• Curriculum development, pedagogical approach, evaluation: Informational visuals, handbooks, workbooks, and monitoring and evaluation protocols targeting bilingual participant base with varying educational background and opportunities to unify youth through sports and peace education.

• Leadership, sports, teamwork and confidence building: Positive youth development, Sports for Resilience model, and an actionable framework for socio-economic reinsertion.

• Entrepreneurial mindset and competencies: Start-up competencies (recognizing and seizing opportunities, developing a business model, plan and pitching) , personal and social competencies (people skills, problem solving, activity planning) and post-harvest business planning, and market strategy., business management, marketing and financial management.

The 18-month timeline allowed for trials in dry and rainy seasons and engaged fifty incarcerated youth with varying language, educational and socioeconomic backgrounds, and an opportunity for pitching a concept for funding. Cost recovery innovations have been integrated into the second trial phase with harvest monetized, sold and returns reinvested into A4A to buy field inputs.