The Smallholder Agriculture Development Project (SADP) II in the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Nutrition has launched a youth mentorship program in the presence of district stakeholders and local authorities.

According to the District Agriculture Officer (DAO), Mr. Tšiu Mphanya the program was built from lessons learnt from SADP I that youth are few in agriculture even though they are more schooling at Agric college.

“We see old people in agriculture mostly hence we want to mentor youth to love agriculture. The focus is on the youth for greater impact,” he said adding that the overarching motive in targeting youth encompasses job creation and expanding opportunities to thrive in the social economic space.

Project Field Officer (PFO), Mr. Lechesa Nthulanyane said the implementation strategy targets youth provable experience in working within agriculture value chains.

He said the project has four components namely; capacity building for Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA), improving agricultural commercialisation and nutrition, project management, monitoring and evaluation and contingency emergency response (CERC).

Following the launch, he said they will visit resource centres for capacity building, saying they hope to find their targeted youth there.

“They are not going to be given money or jobs but motivate and improve their knowledge for their success,” he said.

The nationwide program will have mentors deemed to be prominent successful farmers like lead farmers and SADP grant beneficiaries.

SADP II is mandated among things to support the increased adoption of Climate Smart Agriculture technologies in Lesotho, enhance commercialisation and improve dietary diversity among targeted project beneficiaries.

The SADP is expected to run for seven years thus from 2019 to 2026.

Source: LENA 13/06/2023