This includes agricultural production and marketing, livestock production and marketing and creating sustainable projects by securing outlets for the sale of services and securing potential financing for projects.
United Arab Emirates’ Ministry of Climate Change and the Environment launched the Food and Agriculture Entrepreneurs Programme, designed to help young participants hone their skills in managing agriculture and livestock projects.
Set to be implemented from 2023 to 2025, the programme forms part of the ‘Transformational Projects’ initiative of the Council of Ministers and offers an integrated system that enables its target audience to establish their own companies in the UAE agriculture sector.
Mariam bint Mohammed Almheiri, Minister of Climate Change and the Environment, said, “In line with the Year of Sustainability initiative and in an effort to achieve the objectives of the 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP28), the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment is working to empower and encourage youth to play an active role in advancing the agriculture and livestock sectors and to achieve national food security. The UAE will seek to encourage other countries to share experiences, lessons learned, and best practices to create new opportunities for transforming food systems, which can only be achieved through collaboration.”
Almheiri indicated that the Ministry is working in collaboration with its strategic partners to empower young entrepreneurs in the fields of agriculture and food trade, develop their skills, and train them to market their products. This, in turn, helps support food security and ensures sustainability by diversifying national food production.
Mohammed Al Ameeri, Assistant Under-Secretary for the Food Diversity Sector at the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment, stated, “The programme will be a significant step towards employing the capabilities of entrepreneurs to support agriculture and livestock sectors in the UAE, by enabling them to access key information, expertise, and experiences, all the while encouraging them to launch businesses that can advance these industries at all levels,” Al Ameeri added. “The programme also offers a platform to communicate our experiences with various other countries, in an effort to achieve our common goals in enhancing global food security and finding solutions to all challenges in that regard.”
The programme was launched on the sidelines of the third meeting of the Farmers’ Council, chaired by Mariam Almheiri at the headquarters of the Gracia Group in Abu Dhabi, which discussed developments in the Council’s activities.
The Gracia Group is the strategic partner for training participants in the Food and Agriculture Entrepreneurs Programme, which is designed to train entrepreneurs and review agricultural projects that serve the local market and UAE farmers. This includes agricultural production and marketing; livestock production and marketing; creating sustainable projects by securing outlets for the sale of services; securing potential financing for projects; enlisting strategic partners from the private sector to support food and agriculture entrepreneurs; training 30 participants to ensure 50 shareholders in commercial and agricultural businesses in the UAE within three years; and achieving permanent sustainability for the startups that will be launched for a period of more than two years.
