On February 8th to 9th 2023, Kilimo Trust conducted a validation workshop for curriculums of short courses on production and processing of tomatoes and passion fruits at Saint Famille Hotel in Kigali. The curriculums were developed in partnership with the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) through its Integrated Country Approach (ICA) program aimed at increasing youth capacities in agribusiness.
The 2-days validation workshop was attended by representatives from FAO, Kilimo Trust, private sector players involved in production and processing of tomatoes and passion fruits, education partners and experts who developed the curriculums.
According to Andrew Gashayija, Kilimo Trust Rwanda Officer In-Charge, the main target for developing these curriculums with support from FAO is to train 150 young entrepreneurs who are involved in tomatoes and passion fruits value chains. He said that the trainees will be trained in different training centers that work with Kilimo Trust. Further still, the developed curriculums will be used by the colleges to train beyond the 150 young entrepreneurs such as other youth and people interested to learn these short courses.
Jean Bosco Habiyaremye, manager at Nyarutarama Business Incubation Center said that if everything learnt from the curriculums can be put into action to produce different products of tomato or passion fruits, market will not be a problem.
Placidie Mukarukaka, a teacher at Kabutare TVET School mentioned that the curriculums were rich enough to enable whoever that will be trained in these two areas to produce good products for market. 
James Masengo, production manager at Ganza Prime Investment Ltd (producers of Ganza passion fruit juice) also added that the curriculums will bring about consistence in the quality of products seen on the market since the producers of these products will have the knowledge about the whole process of making that product until it is consumed.
A total of one hundred and fifty (150) young entrepreneurs will be the first beneficiaries of the developed curriculums through the partnership between FAO and Kilimo Trust to increase youth capacities in agribusiness. They will be trained at College Fondation Sina Gerard (CFSG), EFA Nyagahanga TSS and IPRC Musanze. The partnership between Kilimo Trust and FAO was reached as a leverage of the ongoing Rural Youth Employment Support (R-YES) project implemented by Kilimo Trust and other partners in Rwanda with funding from IFAD, VISA and BMZ to create employment opportunities (wage or self-employment) for rural youth in agribusiness.
Validation workshop video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSyFNcL1POc
