Gulu University exhibits Agro-process innovations at Jinja trade show

JINJA, (UG): Gulu University Faculty of Agriculture and Environment is participating at the 29^th National Agriculture trade show happening at Jinja Agricultural show ground organized by the 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 agro-processing enterprise products that include natural tamarind juice, pineapple juice and mushroom product enterprises.

“We started officially on Tuesday and is all 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 centre 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 Agriprenuership for Increased Youth Employment (SAY)’ with funding from the Embassy of 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, 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 noted.

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