CALL FOR APPLICATION TO ATTEND THE YFARM 3RD NATIONAL YOUTH & WOMEN AGRIC. FESTIVAL 2018

Youth Farm (YFarm) Project is a brainchild of Fresh & Young Brains Development Initiative and Alexijan Consults which adopts a two-pronged approach of promoting youth-led farms and highlighting the benefits of farming for sustainable livelihoods and youth development. 

YFarm Project aims to establish and promote at least 10,000 youth-led farms and agribusinesses across Africa by 2020 as well as highlight the immense benefits of youth farming as a Culture, Career, Fun activity and Business towards sustainable livelihoods.
The project targets vulnerable youth from conflict, rural and peri-urban communities across Africa using research & documentation, Bootcamps and festivals, policy advocacy & public engagement, media & social media campaigns, farm documentary, sub-grants, farm demonstrations and integrated organic farms. 

YFarm project has been at the fore-front of capacity building and policy advocacy for active youth engagement in the agricultural and environmental sectors at national and African Union levels. We were involved in the development of the Agricultural Promotion Policy for Nigeria 2016, African Union Agribusiness Strategy, Joint Sector Review Process for Nigeria, ECOWAS 2nd Generation RAIP/NAIP and Implementation Framework for the Comprehensive African Agriculture Programme (CAADP), NEPAD’s Climate Smart Agriculture Alliance, among others. 

Working in collaboration with African Youth Initiative on Climate Change (AYICC), CAADP Youth Network, YEAP A-Nagropreneurs and Young Professionals Platform for Agricultural development (YPARD), YFarm Project team uses research outcomes and key lessons from the project to develop toolkits and resource guides for policy advocacy and public engagement.

We envisage that through the YFarm Project, youth in agribusiness will acquire the necessary tools to adopt sustainable agricultural practices and empower other young farmers in their local communities to be financially independent. Hence, the Formal Launch of our project as a National Campaign (YFarm: My Farm, my Swag) by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture on April 2nd, 2014 jump-started the entire project. Since inception, we have hosted National and African Youth Agric Festivals, outreaches, marketplace and bootcamps at community, school, provincial, national and regional levels in order to celebrate and share best practices among youth and other stakeholders in Agriculture.

With the support of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Oxfam Nigeria, Caritas Nigeria and One Campaign, we organized the 1st African and National Youth Agric Festival on August 12, 2014 and March 16, 2015 in Nasarawa and Abuja respectively and the 2nd African and National Youth Agric Festival on October 27, 2017 in Abuja.

The YFarm 3rd National Youth & Women Agric Festival on the theme: ‘Attracting Public Funding in Sustainable Agriculture for Youth & Women Small Scale Farmers’ will hold on November 26 & 27, 2018.

Activities during the Festival & Concert include:
Awards | Networking | Marketplace Exhibitions | Agribusiness Clinic | Nutrition Sensitive Food & Logo Contest | Cultural Parade | Poetry Presentation | Drama Competition | Fun Game, and lots more. 

There would be an online challenge on Nutrition Sensitive Food and Logo Contest. Participants would be asked to design a logo that represents a Nutrition Sensitive Food and the winner will be announced on the 26th. Also, the Food and Parade Contest would be open to all online - this would require interested participants to take a selfie of them eating a Nutritious Sensitive Food under the hashtag #MyNutriFood

REGISTER HERE