Aldi UK has become the first UK supermarket to team up with international development charity Farm Africa, in a three-year partnership to support young farmers in Kenya.
The supermarket has pledged to donate £260,000 to fund Growing Futures, a project that works to educate young people in sustainable agriculture, which is being run by Farm Africa in Kitale, western Kenya.
Aldi and Farm Africa are joining forces in an effort to improve the lives of more than 400 out-of-school young people by helping them to grow and sell more crops, and to sell their produce for more money, so they can earn a decent income and build sustainable businesses.
In doing so, the project aims to enable young people to escape the cycle of poverty by empowering them to create more commercially viable livelihoods for themselves through agriculture and become business leaders in their communities.
Oliver King, corporate managing director at Aldi UK said: “By supporting young people in rural areas to increase harvests and create better incomes for themselves, Growing Futures will not only play its part in eradicating extreme poverty in Kitale, it will help young people build for the future.
“The project will encourage young people to become job creators rather than job seekers, turning them into drivers of economic growth and reducing their communities’ dependence on aid.”
Farm Africa works with small-scale farmers, government and private sector organisations across Africa to boost food production, creating more sustainable and commercial farming that builds rural incomes and sustains natural resources.
Nicolas Mounard, chief executive of Farm Africa, said: “This partnership will help us give young farmers in Kenya the vital support they need to grow themselves out of poverty.
“As well as assisting young farmers to vastly improve the quality and amount of food they produce, this project will help ensure they are growing the most valuable crops, support them in finding the best contracts, and enable them to sell their crops at higher value markets so they can find a lasting way out of poverty.”
