Background of the workshop:

Rural youth is discouraged due to following reasons.

1. No educational and training opportunities.

2. No acceptance in the cities for education or for job.

3. No earning opportunities in their villages.

In keeping the above mentioned causes for their underdevelopment and frustration, AIM organized preliminary meetings with them and in those meetings, the two things were discussed 1)Youth migrated to the urban areas  and 2)Youth have more opportunities of development in existed resources (agriculture). In the group exercise the members identified following problem by their urbanization.

1. In cities, competition for job and training is high, if they have job then there

    is question of security or personal guarantee.

2. Problem of residence, high rental cost, but again with the personal 

   guarantee.

3. High cost of food and other utilities.

4. Transportation cost.

5. No care during sickness or other emergencies.

They also shared that they don’t have any future while living in the rural areas and experiencing following problems.

1. Their land is insufficient to accommodate all family members.

2. They don’t have information to improve their agriculture or to start some

    agricultural related enterprises.

3. They are unaware about the marketing techniques.

In keeping the problems and limitation of the youth, it is planned to train the youth to remain in the rural with training and developmental opportunities. Total plan was prepared for 14 months and each training will be 2 days with the objectives to train for production, presentation and marketing and most likely enterprises are the following.

01. Mushroom culture

02. Silk worm rearing

03. Preservation of seasonal vegetables and fruits

04. Chicken farming

05. Compost making

06. Feed for small and big animals

07. Products from date palm and mulberry

08. Rose cultivation and its products

09. Honey bee farming

10. Medicinal products from Acacia

First training was organized on November 20-21 November, 2004 and next training will be on January 15-16, 2005 about the Mushroom Culture.

Young farmers training program (January 15, 2005)

AIM had started a 14 months training program for the rural unemployed youth with the following objectives. When they approached cities for jobs/ labour or training they experienced number of problems, like living, food, security for room and job, very low income to send their families in villages.

1. To sustain youth in villages and to develop interest with agriculture.

2. To have earnings in villages.

3. To have technology.

5. To save rural youth from the exploiting agencies of cities.

4. To stop urbanization.

We have 25(boys and girls) in this group, first training we have rendered to this youth about MUSHROOM CULTURE on January 15,2005 in Chak 11 after studying its production material, cost and marketing (photos of the training are attached with this email). Out of 25 trainees 4 planned to start themselves and AIM will provide seed of mushroom with 50% contribution.

Marketing points for Mushroom

1. Five stars hotels in major cities of Pakistan.

2. Big shopping centre.

3. Islamabad (Blue area, if we have display people appreciate the products from NGOs).

4. In Pakistan, people have awareness about the use of Mushroom because of:

• Good for heart, diabetic and blood pressure patients.
• Complete diet.
• People prefer for the light and nutritious food.

5. Hospitals and sliming centres.

Next training enterprises (agro based and nominated by the youth, not from AIM ) we educated them the criteria for the selection of enterprises.

• Silk worm rearing.
• Preservation of seasonal vegetables, fruits etc.
• Rose cultivation and its products.
• Growing of medicinal plants.
• Spices according to market and environment.
• Compost making.
• Products from different trees have medicinal values (Acacia, eucalyptus, shishum etc).
• Veterinary medicine (for milk production, to improve quality of wool, meat etc).
• Small farming (poultry, goat), making shed, feed, care and marketing.

Young Farmers Training Program

March 13,2005 Chak 11 District Okara

AIM organized one day training for the unemployed young farmers in sequence of 14^th months training program for rural youth of different villages.

First training was for Mushroom culture, 4 persons (3 males and 1 female) tool initiative for mushroom cultivation. After the training for small farming (poultry and goat), the four young persons decided to start poultry farming. AIM will provide them technical and necessary financial assistance for the farming.

In the continuation of our training program for young farmers training program, the AIM’s rural team conducted two day training for the rural young farmers for compost making from the local resources.

AIM’s trainer conducted class and field training for the participants for compost making and also did monitoring of the past trainings for Mushroom culture and small farming.

Teaching and training in the class for the young farmers by AIM’s trainer

Teaching and training in the field