AgriTech Roots: ‘’Empowering Young farmers and agribusiness youths through Digital Literacy’’

Project Summary
Agriculture remains the backbone of Uganda’s economy, employing over 70% of the population (FAO, 2026). According to the 2024 National Population and Housing Census, socio-economic data from the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) indicates that agriculture presents the largest employment opportunity for young people, with approximately 75% of youth aged 15–24 years entering the sector as their first form of employment. However, the sector is largely characterized by low productivity, as only 17% of young people are engaged in commercial agriculture, while 53% of households depend on subsistence farming.

Despite its importance, Uganda’s agricultural sector faces persistent and interrelated challenges, including climate change-induced droughts and floods, increasing pests and crop diseases, land degradation, and declining soil fertility. These challenges are compounded by low adoption of modern technologies, heavy reliance on rain-fed production systems, limited access to affordable credit and quality inputs, inadequate rural infrastructure, and weak linkages to markets. As a result, many young farmers struggle to transform agriculture into a viable and sustainable livelihood.

While digital technologies offer significant potential to enhance climate resilience, productivity, and market access, digital adoption among rural youth remains critically low. Key barriers include high internet costs, poor connectivity in rural areas, unreliable access to electricity, limited financial capacity to acquire digital tools, and low levels of digital literacy. These constraints prevent young farmers from accessing timely weather information, market prices, advisory services, and digital financial solutions that could improve decision-making and income generation.

This project seeks to address these challenges by integrating digital literacy with sustainable farming practices. It aims to build the capacities of youth workers and young farmers to effectively use digital tools for climate-smart agriculture, including weather forecasting, market price tracking, soil analysis, and digital financial management solutions such as mobile money and micro-lending platforms. By equipping young people with relevant digital skills and tools, the project will contribute to increased agricultural productivity, improved resilience to climate shocks, and the transition from subsistence to commercially viable farming.

Objectives
1. To train 200 young Ugandan farmers in the use of mobile applications and tools for precision agriculture
2. To reduce post-harvest losses by 20% through better access to digital market-linkage platforms
3. To facilitate a knowledge exchange between EU Agri-Tech startups and Ugandan agricultural cooperatives.
4. To create a "Digital Farmer Toolkit" available in English and in other official languages as well as local ones among the partner participating countries.

Target Groups
• Rural youth (ages 18-30) engaged in small-scale farming.
• Youth workers, VET educators, and agricultural extension officers.
• Local NGOs, ICT hubs, and Ministry of Agriculture representatives.

Planned Activities
Activity Description
Mobility of youth workers A 7day training of TOT in Kampala focused on digital pedagogy for rural setting.
Agri innovation day Competitive event where youth develop mobile based solutions for local farming challenge e.g pest Identification
The E- Shamba pilot Implementing of digital tracking tools on 10 demonstration firms to show case real time return of investment
Final Conference A dissemination event to share results with policy makers and potential investors

We are looking for:
EU partners, NGOs, tech-hubs with experience in precision farming and KA2 project management.
Programme countries with strong background in digital inclusion and non-formal education.

How to apply.
If your country is passionate about digital transformation and rural development, please reach out via Otlas or email us at ladeug.org@gmail.com