Developing Innovations In School and Community Cultivation

Introduction

The negative perception of agricultural employment by young people in Uganda results in untapped employment opportunities within the agricultural value chain, and contributes to the larger decline of the agricultural sector. Project DISCC is working to reshape the negative attitude of young people towards agriculture by integrating an experiential learning model into the education system that exposes students to different facets of the agricultural value chain. It  is transforming the perception of agriculture, and helping young people to appreciate the sector as a mainstream career option.

Mission

To promote youth participation economically viable environmentally sustainable farming through developing Innovations in school and community Cultivation (DISCC).

The Problem

The majority of East Africa’s population is based in rural areas, and is composed predominantly of young people. Specifically, Uganda has a rural population rate of 86%, and 77% of this population is under 30 years old (World Bank, 2011).

However, highyouth unemployment rates have led to an unprecedented movement of young people from rural to urban areas, in search of employment opportunities. This influx has placed considerable strain on urban infrastructure, which was not designed to accommodate a rapidly swelling population; and has resulted in increased urban poverty and the proliferation of slums around urban centers. At the same time, rural areas are left with an aging population that lacks the capacity to drive and sustain long-run growth in the agricultural sector (the historical backbone of Uganda’s economy, accounting for about 24% of GDP in 2010).

It is here that the paradox emerges- although Uganda, and most African countries, face challenges of persistent poverty and high unemployment, there remains unrealized wealth and employment opportunity in the agricultural sector. However, agricultural employment is negatively perceived by Uganda’s youth; and it is this stigma that allows for the persistence of high youth unemployment rates as well as Rural – Urban migration and the continued decline of an important economic sector. According to a 2010 World Bank report, the sector’s growth rate fell from 3.5% in 2009 to 0.3% in 2010. And the longer the sector stagnates, the stronger the stigma surrounding agricultural employment becomes.

Despite the magnitude of these challenges, there is little being done to tackle high youth unemployment in rural areas. Even less is being done to get young people to view the opportunities in the agricultural value chain as viable and dignified employment options. Many associate farming with their own experiences of poverty in rural areas. Additionally, rural and urban schools contribute to this stigma by using agricultural, or farming, activities as punishment for bad conduct or poor performance. The lack of experiential or practical learning opportunities, even in a subject like agriculture, further exacerbates this problem- students have no chance to see or engage in the profession as a formal part of their schooling.While there were once agriculture clubs in Kenyan primary schools (4K clubs)that provided young people with these practical opportunities, they were a part of a politically motivated intervention that collapsed when the Moi regime ended. Collectively, these factors- a lack of real engagement opportunities, and the association of farming with poverty, punishment and the past- builds this stigma in the minds of Ugandans, and East Africans, from a young age.  

The New Idea

Project DISCC is addressing the problems of high youth unemployment and a stagnating agricultural sector by reversing the negative perception that young people have ofemployment within the agricultural value chain. By incorporating an experiential method of teaching agriculture and income-generating gardens within schools, it exposes young people to the range of economic and career opportunities that the agricultural sector presents. It  envisions a generation of young people with a renewed and positive attitude towards agriculture and as a result, a more productive and dynamic sector that is infused with the passion, professionalism and energy of educated young people.

With unrealized wealth locked away in agriculture on the one hand, and high levels of youth unemployment and ensuing poverty on the other hand, Africa, and in particular Uganda, seems to be a paradox. Little has been done to close this obvious gap but for the first time in Uganda, a concerted and highly targeted approach to resolve this paradox can be seen in Project DISCC’s work. Its  idea is based on the understanding that the stigma surrounding agricultural employment begins at a young age and is reinforced by a lack of practical engagement in the agricultural value chain development and the use of agricultural chores as punishment in schools. Project DISCC is working to recast agricultural employment and increase youth involvement in Agricultural production as a dignified and profitable option, by partnering with primary and secondary schools as well as rural and Urban communities to engage more young people and students in income-generating agricultural production, marketing and product distribution and by providing opportunities for interaction with successful players at different stages of the value chain. In this manner, project DISCC demonstrates to youth communities, students and teachers that if done well, agriculture can be an interesting and financially rewarding economic activity.

Its  unique insight into this stigma, and the potential role that schools have in recastingthis negative perception, has led to a program thatdemonstrates and encourages careers inagriculture; thereby unlocking the employment opportunities available in rural areas and injecting new, young energy into a stagnating sector.

The Strategy

With the understanding that this stigma is developed at a young age and reinforced by schools, Project DISCC identified schools and communities that would yield the highest impact from incorporating its  program. It  started with schools that explicitly use farm chores as punishment;as this also provided Project DISCC with an entry point to simultaneously engage school administrators, teachers and parents in advocating for the abolishment of this practice. It then leverages these relationships to introduce an experiential learning program in agriculture that is designed to be fun and exciting for the students. The process of envisioning and planning activities is participatory and involves teachers, parents and students; and this co-creation gains buy-in from these groups. Since 2006, Project DISCC has successfully implemented this strategy and established operations in 17 schools and 5 communities in rural and peri-urban areas across the country through his organization, Project DISCC.

Central to its  recruitment strategy is a volunteer approach, which creates self-selected groups of only the most interested and passionate young people in each school. These young stars then go on to recruit their peers into the program.  Once recruited, members are exposed to the various stages of the value chain through a series of engaging activities and projects. At the production level, students are involved in designing their school garden, picking crops and tending to them until they are ready for harvest. Alongside this, they are taken on school-supported fieldtrips to visit successful local farmers from whom they gain inspiration and learn best practices. At the supply and distribution level, his program incorporates visits to supermarkets, restaurants and hotels, and participation in agricultural fairs and cooking workshops. Students also gain exposure to the broader and international importance of the agricultural sector, by participating in relatedglobal and national commemorative events, such as World Food Day. Excited about what they are learning, a number of students independently utilize their skills to start their own home gardens.

Project DISCC envisions a future in which agriculture is embraced in schools as a means to prosperity and self-sustenance, rather than a method of punishment. Project DISCC understood that it could demonstratethat agriculture is a viable economic activity to students and school administrators, if every school garden could go beyond feeding the school and generate an income to subsidize administrative costs. To date, all 17 schools that project DISCC is working with have achieved this important milestone, demonstrating the value of agriculture to schools and gaining it the support of Slow Food International in expanding it’s efforts. 

Achievements

Over the past years since 2006, Project DISCC has been collaborating with international Organizations like Slow Food International, Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity, World Watch Institute (State of the world report 2011), Food Tank, Agricultural Innovations Systems Brokerage Association (AGINSBA) as well as local authorities like Mukono District Local Government production Department and in doing so, we have managed to accomplish several activities and below are some of them.

1. The Fruit and Juice Party: This is an annual event that involves schools and youth community groups coming together to celebrate their harvests, It involves preparing Juices and fruits. This has been exciting since 2008 and various schools host it per year.
2. The Workshops and Trainings: Project DISCC organizes annual refresher workshops on starting up a school or community garden, and technical management plus how to motivate young starts join the project.
3. Exchange Visits: The schools involved in the project are taken on exchange visits as well as service learning, where they learn new things and get motivated from successful and non-successful farmers.
4. REACH program for Youth: This is a new innovation that is design to introduce the young stars to real agro-business. This involves a number of trainings on marketing, garden management, financial management, cooperatives among others. REACH stands for Rural Entrepreneurship Agricultural Challenge For Youth.