Youth for agribusiness: empowering Ugandan young farmers through the Youth Agricultural Parks

Youth unemployment is one of Uganda’s major socio-economic challenges hindering the country’s s economic growth. In rural areas, young people face limited access to key resources — particularly land and financial services — and remain largely confined to subsistence farming, restricting opportunities to generate income. To tackle this challenge, a combination of technical support, land allocation for collective farming, and youth-to-youth mentorship has proven to be an effective strategy. 

The Young Farmers Champions Network (YOFCHAN), established with the support from the Integrated Country Approach programme for boosting decent jobs for youth in the agrifood system (ICA), plays a vital role in advancing this strategy. The Network’s mission is to empower young farmers with the knowledge, tools and resources they need to start, grow and scale their agribusinesses — while also advocating for a more supportive environment that enables youth to thrive in agriculture.

The Network now includes 13 subregional chapters and around 2,000 youth champions. These subregional chapters support the YOFCHAN secretariat in coordinating activities, mobilizing champions, and sharing information. The youth champions who are successful young farmers, act as a role model in their community and share their knowledge with their peers. Thanks to YOFCHAN, young Ugandan farmers and agripreneurs receive support at both national and district levels. This includes strengthening their agricultural entrepreneurship skills, improving market access, and enhancing collaboration with local governments to facilitate access to essential services.  

In 2023, YOFCHAN established a Youth Agricultural Park (YAP) in Nwoya district with support from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Through the Park, YOFCHAN provides selected youth groups with plots of land for collective farming, fostering technical support, peer-to-peer learning, and access to essential agricultural inputs and services. Thanks to this initiative, a group of 75 young farmers successfully cultivated and sold watermelon and maize. The profits were shared among the members, who also gained hands-on experience in modern agronomic practices — turning learning into real income.

Youth beneficiary groups continuously receive a combination of technical training and field demonstrations covering agronomy, modern and climate-smart farming practices, post-harvest handling, record keeping, and group dynamics.  Additionally, YOFCHAN monitors land management and youth performance using mobile-based tools. As of today, YOFCHAN has supported over 700 young farmers in accessing markets, helped 200 youth-led agribusinesses formalize their enterprises, and reached 150 youth through the Youth Agricultural Park. In addition, the network actively contributes to policy consultations and decision-making processes related to youth and agrifood systems. This includes advocating for the Government to allocate 30 percent of the Parish Development Model funds to youth initiatives.  

Looking ahead, YOFCHAN aims to scale up the successful Youth Agri Park model to other districts, with Isingiro in the Southwestern Uganda, identified as a key location for expansion. The Park in Isingiro would serve as a sub-regional hub for youth-led innovation and agribusinesses, enabling value addition, market access, and the promotion of climate-smart practices. Through this expansion —  which still relies in part on securing international financial support — YOFCHAN aims to create decent job opportunities and unlock economic potential for young people in rural Uganda.