AfrII and partners on the YLA project increased the economic opportunity and income of 4,787 youths engaged in the fresh cassava roots (FCR) value chain in the districts of Lira and Apac in Northern Uganda. Through the project, a total of UGX 849,550,994 was realized by 4,787 youths, an over achievement from the initial targeted 4,710 youths. Through exposure to training activities around financial literacy, the youth embraced a culture of saving and borrowing and were able to mobilize savings worth UGX 64,708,000 and to access financial services valued at UGX 183,084,000 during the project implementation period.

How the project attracted and benefited the youth.

The project focused on interventions to facilitate Fresh Cassava Root (FCR) supply to facilitate processing of FCR into High Quality Cassava Flour (HQCF) at WindWood Millers Ltd (WML) and Adyaka Wholesalers Limited (AWL) cassava factories that each need about 7,200 metric tons of FCRs annually, an equivalent of 720 acres of cassava if average yields of 10 metric tons per acre are achieved. Both companies were constrained by challenges due to the erupt spread of Cassava Brown Streak Disease (CBSD), prolonged drought in the region and increased demand for cassava products for various uses, which led to a drastic decline in the quantity and quality of FCR available for processing. Consequently, the factories were then operating at less than 10% of their annual installed capacity. Each Company then embarked on own FCRs production and established 40-60 acres of own nucleus farms to produce FCRs for processing. This was still far below their annual FCRs requirement of about 7,200 MTs or 720 acres. To mitigate this, both factories requested AfrII to help them organize the FCR supply chain in order to increase supply of FCR to their factories.

AND, with support from USAID Feed the Future Uganda Youth Leadership for Agriculture Activity (YLA), AfrII entered into a partnership with Chemonics International, to support both companies to pilot private sector-led delivery of technology and skills for increasing cassava yields and fresh root supply on contract. This encouraged innovative thinking and thus the project concept that targeted youth involvement so as to benefit the companies as well as increase youth economic opportunity in the cassava value chain in the long run.

In the photo: A smiling Akullu Semmy, 20 years old, one of the youths in Kole that immensely benefited from the YLA project.