Enhanced Youth Employment Avocado and Macadamia Growing project
Funded by, Don Bosco JugenHilfe Weltweit from Switzerland.
The project is one of a kind because of the high demand and low supply of avocado and macadamia in the world. This has made the prices of the product in the market rise up significantly. We expect the young people from Nzaikoni and Kabazi to be the beneficiaries of these attractive market exchange trade in the next three to four years.
The project was done in two phases:
The Avocado and Macadamia project was started in March 2020 in Machakos – Nzaikoni and Nakuru – Kabazi areas.
The first phase involved the planting of 10,000 avocado seedlings in each location.
During this phase, 1000 youths from both Nakuru and Machakos were trained in partnership with the agricultural extension officers in their respective areas on how to manage and sustain the project (planting, managing, and caring for the young seedlings to maturity).
During the process, monitoring has been emphasized to ensure the young farmers benefit from the project.
Phase two started in May 2022 and focused on planting 7000 Macadamia seedlings.
The seedlings were purchased from Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology.
These seedlings were distributed to 300 young farmers in both Machakos-Nzaikoni and Nakuru-Kabazi areas too. Just like in phase one, the young farmers were taken through vigorous training on care, maintenance, and management of the plants in collaboration with selected experts from the respective counties.
The seedlings are doing well and there is hope that the project will highly benefit the youth through the provision of employment in the next three years.