Gulu University Displays Agro –Processing Innovations in Jinja

Gulu University, Faculty of Agriculture and Environment is participating in the 29^th National Agriculture Trade Show in Jinja Agricultural show ground organized by Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries that started on August 4^th going up to the 13^th of the same month.

Dr. Muggaga Christopher, the team leader in Jinja, said the University has brought to the Agricultural market its processed agro-products that include natural tamarind juice, pineapple juice, and mushroom products.

“We started officially on Tuesday and all is moving well, people are excited about the products our students are selling and we are so far thrilled by the feedback from the people visiting our stall, our stall is also a one stop information center for Gulu University as a whole”. Dr Muggaga said.

This is made possible through a partnership between Gulu University and AVSI Foundation under a project called ‘Skilling in Agriprenuership for Increased Youth Employment (SAY) with funding from the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands focusing on developing the competence of young people between the age of 13 to 30 to increase income opportunities in the agri-business sector.

Dr. Okello Collins the Dean Faculty of Agriculture and Environment said that the Agriculture show in Jinja is very important for the Faculty to also test its ‘earn-as-you-learn skilling model’ where the youth involved in the training would begin enjoying the fruit of the training immediately.
“So the students there are selling their end products and would get feedback from the customers and that is a very big platform, so the university would heavily benefit even from further developing the model but also making the students experience the real world out of the class and training session”. Dr. Okello Submitted.

The SAY project has a target of training over 16,000 youth aged 18-30 years for immediate employment in the agricultural sector.