Fadhella Modeste earned RWF 150,000 a month as a primary school teacher in Rwanda. Today the 26-year-old runs a poultry business of 1,000 layer chickens in Gatsibo District, producing around 800 eggs a day with reported monthly revenue of about RWF 3.6 million, AGRA reported.
Farming was never his plan. His view changed after entrepreneurship and work-readiness training through the Youth Entrepreneurship for the Future of Food and Agriculture (YEFFA) programme, delivered in Rwanda's Eastern Province by Akazi Kanoze Access, which asked participants to find unmet needs in their communities and create jobs rather than look for them. "I saw that there was a gap in agriculture, and I started producing to fill that gap in my district," he said.
He started small with what he could afford, sold the birds, reinvested and expanded: 50 chickens became 100, and one production cycle financed the next until he reached 1,000 layers.
The farm now employs three permanent workers, and Modeste has brought in three young bicycle transporters who move eggs and other produce for his business and for other farmers in the area. AGRA presents his path from salaried teacher to employer as an example of the programme's aim of turning young people into job creators in agriculture.
Photo: VanTucky / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 1.0)
Source: AGRA
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