Youths urged to embrace new opportunities under agro industrialisation

As Uganda joins the rest of the United Nations fraternity to commemorate International Youth Day, young men and women have been urged to take advantage of all the new opportunities under agro industrialisation.

The minister of state for Youth and Children Affairs, Sarah Nyirabashitsi Mateke said the agro industrialisation strategy will address low production and productivity of primary agriculture, poor post-harvest handling and storage, limited value addition and insufficient market access.

"It will also permit adherence to food safety requirements and standards in export markets. This will also partially address the reason provided to create Non-Tariff Barriers (NTBs) in regional markets, which constrains agribusiness," she said in a statement.

Nyirabashitsi said that it is clear from the theme that Uganda’s food systems have broken down and require application of robust scientific undertakings to re-sustain and resurrect them.

"In our endeavour to industrialise, we have prioritised agro industrialisation within the NDP Ill and went ahead to allocate trillions of money to finance a new dawn in the agricultural sector; the backbone of our economy," she said.

She explained that their energies are geared towards making agriculture not only fun for young people but extremely rewarding in economic terms.

International Youth Day is celebrated in conformity with the UN General Assembly Resolution 54/120 of 1999 that officially designated 12th August every year as International Youth Day.

The theme for this year's celebration is "Youth Innovations for Transformation of Food Systems and Sustainable Human Health".