Agriculture Ministry Looking to Scale Up Training under RYEEP

The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining is looking to ramp up the Rural Youth Economic Empowerment Programme (RYEEP) to reach at least 1,000 participants over the next three years.

This is an increase over the 360 young people who have benefited from the programme over the previous three-year cycle.

Portfolio Minister, Hon. Floyd Green, made the disclosure while addressing a graduation ceremony for 157 persons trained and certified by the HEART/NSTA Trust under RYEEP Builder, at the Jamaica Conference Centre, downtown Kingston, on Friday (June 13).

He said that the objective is to get more young people involved in agriculture.

“I have seen this as a direct pathway into agriculture, and we have a model that we can scale up to get more young people involved,” he said.

“We are seeing more young people choosing agriculture, and that is what we want. We are continuing to see the decline in our average age, and Jamaica now has the lowest average age in farming across the region. Across the world, the average age of a farmer is 60 years and we are now at 48, which is very good,” the Minister added.

RYEEP is an entrepreneurial training initiative focused on supporting young people in agriculture.

Organised by the Jamaica 4-H Clubs in partnership with the HEART Trust/NSTA, it is designed to empower the youth through training in the areas of life skills, business development and management as well as best practices in agriculture.

RYEEP Builder specifically targets existing youth agri-entrepreneurs who are looking to expand their businesses.

It provides them with training, resources, and support to grow their agricultural enterprises.

Under the initiative, 100 businesses have been supported, with more than 90 formalised, and scores of employment opportunities have been created and sustained, impacting more than 80 communities islandwide.

Beneficiaries of RYEEP Builder have gone on to shine in national micro, small and medium-sized enterprise (MSME) pitch competitions and have won awards like the Isratech Jamaica Sustainable Farming title, and the Prime Minister’s Youth Award for Agriculture.

Minister Green hailed RYEEP, noting that “it is the best youth development programme I’ve seen”.

“There are so many times you go to agricultural shows and see somebody with a product and when you go to speak to that youth, they say, I was a participant in the programme,” he pointed out.