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Warsaw University of Life Sciences trains Botswana youth in agribusiness

Warsaw University of Life Sciences – SGGW has partnered with ASSECO Data Systems, a group of companies from Poland to train Botswana youth in agribusiness, for free.

So far, training of sixty interested individual degree holders has been performed online, live from Warsaw University of Life Sciences for the duration of four months. “We used the national labour database to spread the word about the training and received 500 interested individuals within two months. This shows the need in the country and the value of the modules” local coordinator – Brice Shakespeare said. He continued by saying some of the challenges they faced during this phase, was that some of the youth either did not have computers or access to internet, on a daily basis.

Now that the government has introduced a new ministry, the Ministry of Entrepreneurship, this project is believed to help with a new concept of education for Botswana, based on the latest trends in increasing agricultural production and digitising the country, plus increasing and developing agricultural and life knowledge, by creating an integrated platform for those involved in agriculture.

This training kick started on the 4th of April and some of the trainees are already happy with the results. “This training will surely help me to understand a lot of agricultural aspects or disciplines that I might have been overlooking over the years. It will also help me to be an active player in the agricultural development of my country, either as a high breed farmer or through provision of quality training and consultancy services”, said Mboy Kgosiyabone, who is one of the male trainees. On the other hand, one of the female trainees Segolame Kesetse stated that as a degree holder she saw it fit to grab this opportunity of learning agribusiness to understand agriculture more. “I am hoping to start up a business in agriculture from the knowledge I acquired since agriculture shall dominate the market in the coming years in Botswana”.

Candidates that will attend the training to the end will be rewarded with certificates of completion. They will also be tasked with coming up with business plans or business ideas through which they will be guided to become entrepreneurs with a local incubator, that will help them find funding for their business projects, from government or international investors.

So far, trainees have attended 75 meetings across 11 different courses:

  • Animal husbandry
  • Basic grassland management
  • Climatic conditions for plant production
  • Crop production management
  • Crop protection
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Introduction to human nutrition
  • Nutrition across the life cycle
  • Project elaboration and management
  • Soil science
  • Transport economics

The joint initiative of SGGW and ASSECO was presented at Polish Business Mission to the Republic of Botswana in July 2022. The aim of the presentation was to gain further interest and support from Botswanan Government to implement extended training programme for the youth in agrobusiness.