Hunger Project Boot Camp Pushes Northern Uganda Youth Into Agribusiness

By Grace Kim

The Hunger Project-Uganda has put real money behind its push to turn Northern Uganda's young people into agribusiness owners: youth groups in the programme have already received seed capital as a performance incentive. The organisation made the disclosure during a two-day agribusiness boot camp in Gulu City, held under its two-year Youth Agriculture Entrepreneurship Programme (YAEP).

The camp targeted young people aged 18 to 35, with a focus on the unemployed and those struggling to access land. Its goal is simple: move them beyond traditional crop production and into value addition, processing, packaging, marketing and financial management — turning staples such as cassava, maize and sorghum into profitable ventures.

"We want young people to see agriculture as a business, not punishment," Evelyn Namubiru Tondo, Head of Programmes at The Hunger Project-Uganda, said in an interview in Gulu City.

What does the programme actually deliver?

Denis Mukomasi, the programme's focal person in Nwoya District, said YAEP goes beyond classroom theory. Participants are connected to government institutions and private sector players to formalise their businesses and open growth channels.

The incentive structure is already paying out. "Youth groups have also received seed capital because they were performing well. This was an incentive," Mukomasi said.

Nwoya District's local government has separately linked farmer groups to Bukona Agro Processors Limited, which is expected to buy their cassava, sorghum and maize. The arrangement attacks one of the smallholder economy's hardest problems: unreliable market access.

Why digital marketing took centre stage

Tadeo Acuna of Young Professionals for Agricultural Development urged participants to embrace technology, value addition and digital marketing to make their agribusinesses competitive. His tool list was concrete: TikTok, Facebook and WhatsApp.

Digital platforms, he argued, give young entrepreneurs an affordable route to wider markets.

"If you are good at speaking, use that to market your products online," Acuna advised.

What happened across the two days?

Day one ran on panel discussions. Agricultural and business experts shared insights on entrepreneurship and sector opportunities, while some participants recounted their own business experiences — the challenges they hit and the strategies that got them through.

Day two moved out of the room and into the field. Participants visited two youth-led enterprises in Gulu City:

• House Ojok, which produces chilli-based products
• Hands of Women, an enterprise that works with local farmers in agricultural processing

At House Ojok, Walter Ojok pressed the case for patience and constant skill-building: "Learning is a continuous process, and that is something every young person should know."

Jennifer Anena, founder of Hands of Women, told participants to hold their ground when the business gets rough. "We should not give up on our dreams until we achieve them," she said.

The bigger picture

The boot camp sits inside a broader effort to position young people as active players in Northern Uganda's agricultural transformation — equipping them with entrepreneurial skills, strengthening market linkages and pushing the commercial potential of locally grown crops.

The programme's bet is that perception plus access changes outcomes: once farming reads as business rather than punishment, and once buyers like Bukona Agro Processors are in the loop, the region's cassava, maize and sorghum stop being subsistence crops and start being supply.