Youth and Women Empowerment through Agriculture in Kenya

This reports contains the findings of a study on Youth, Women and Agriculture conducted in the months of January- March 2012. The study was carried out within the framework of the VSO’s Jitolee mandate of empowering the Youth and Women for self reliance through enterprise creation. VSO’s interest in agriculture as a platform for youth and women economic advancement nests well within Kenya’s macro economic framework Vision 2030 whose main thrust is to transform Kenya into a middle income country by the year 2030. Vision 2030 positions the agricultural sector as a key driver for delivering the 10 per cent annual economic growth rate envisaged under the economic pillar of Vision 2030. The sector has set itself a goal of achieving an average growth rate of 7 per cent by 2015. A key thrust of the current agricultural development strategy is to increase productivity, commercialization and competitiveness of agricultural commodities and enterprises.