 The acquisition role between the Kenya Airports Authority and the National Korea KQ, the flag carrier island, posted positive financial results in revenue for the year ending in December 2018. The Kenya Airways recorded growth in revenue amounting to 114.45 billion shillings in 2018 compared to 80.79 billion shillings registered for the months to December of 2017. The growth was boosted by growth in passengers and cargo revenues. Passengers revenue grew from 63.9 billion shillings in the ninth months of 2017 to 88.7 billion shillings in 2018, while cargo revenue grew to 8.68 billion shillings from 5.7 billion shillings for the periods under review. Passengers number were 4.84 million at close of December 2018, while the nine-month period ended December 2017, recorded at 3.43 million passengers. Despite the growth in revenue, KQ registered considerable losses in its loss before income tax, which increased from 6.3 billion shillings in 2017 to 7.6 billion shillings in 2018. The flag carrier island now has committed to various measures to ensure financial and operating efficiencies for a sustainable business. Some of the commitments include expanding network through introduction of new routes, revenue enhancement, through boosting of ancillary revenue streams, and continue focus on cost-reducing initiatives. Yes, remember the discussion we are having tonight is despite agriculture contributing to 26 per cent of the Kenya's GDP. Why are so many youths not taking up this opportunity? Instead, they want white collar jobs. Moving on to another story, making headlines today is equity bank and safaricom have revived the MKSHO partnership that was launched nine years ago in a move to expand their digital financial businesses. Under the agreement, customer will be able to access financial services through their safaricom mobile lines. The pact will see them build more inclusive financial products, explore original synergies, simplify cash delivery between their agents, and share technical knowledge to build a common approach to risk such as fraud and cybercrime. Safaricom and equity bank are keen on leveraging on technology and innovation to penetrate the financial market, including revamping and restructuring of the MKSHO services that will see the lender's customers access financial services via safaricom mobile lines. Equity group CEO James Mwangi says the partnership will be strategic for the two companies to actively participate and invest in the big four agenda. Father talks on the agreement are still ongoing with a signed awaiting approval from relevant authorities. Yes, remember you can be part of this conversation using our social media platform that is Y254 channel across all social media platform or you can tweet me directly at Miriam underscore must serve I remember the hashtag to use is Y254 updates and moving on to the stories making headlines today is the government has launched a braille version of the vision 2030 2030 blueprint in efforts to increase reach to people living with disabilities head of public service Joseph Kenya says members of the public would will be sensitized on the need to openly embrace diversity and inclusion by mainstreaming and supporting people with disabilities. The vision 2030 has economic social political pillars that are anchored on among others macroeconomic stability continuity on governance reforms infrastructure energy land reform and human resource development. However, it has been a challenge for people living with disabilities especially those with visual impairment to understand the document. It is based on these that the government has unveiled a braille version of the vision 2030 blueprint official says the government will step up sensitization of members of the public on the need to openly embrace diversity and inclusion by mainstreaming and supporting people with disabilities. And moving on drilling for water for the multi billion shillings special economic zone in Mayumayo Nakuru County has kicked off with projection that will supply 8,000 cubic meters of water per day water and sanitation principal secretary Joseph Irungu says under the initiative five boreholes would be drilled near Delamere farm and equipped speaking after he visited the site Irungu said that the boreholes had floored free water that was ample for special economic zone he termed the 1000 acre industrial park as a reality adding that a lot of water was needed as works by various investors kikuf in the next couple of months. And welcome back remember can be part of this conversation using our social media handles which is one two five four channel across all social media platform remember today is business Tuesday and we talk in matters business where we bring you business news locally international and even globally and moving on to our international business news telecommunication group Vodafone found security flows in equipped supplied by China's Huawei to its Italian business in sorry in in 2011 and 2012 the two companies said on Tuesday Vodafone Europe's biggest telecom group group said it had found security vulnerabilities in two products that both incidents had been resolved quickly Huawei the world's biggest producer of telecoms equipment is under intense scrutiny after United States told allies not to use its technology because of fear it could be a vehicle for Chinese spying several European telecoms operator are considering removing Huawei equipment from their networks in January Vodafone pulls the deployment of Huawei equipment in its core networks in Europe until western governments resolve their security concern about the company however Huawei has categorically denied this Huawei said it was made aware of historical vulnerabilities in 2011 and 2012 and that they had been addressed at the time now those are the news making headlines tonight or today rather and moving on to our discussion of the day we're discussing about youths in the agriculture sector most of the youths are shying away taking up agriculture as form of employment despite agriculture contributing at least 26% of the country's GDP in tonight in studio we have Eric Machugo who is an agribusiness student and will be taking part of this conversation remember also you can be part of this using a social media platform that is Y254 channel across all social media platform we can tweet me directly at medium underscore must have the hashtag to use is Y254 updates Eric Karibusana to Y254 studio thank you yes how are you today very fine yes and i'm glad to be part of this show yes welcome so much and you know with a agriculture sector you said you've seen that the statistics show that agriculture contributes 26 at least 26 percent of the of the economy gdp's of the kenyans gdp okay and what what what do we expect this year considering the long droughts and the unexpected rain and unfavorable rain rains sorry rather rains and farm inputs which are really expensive what what are the expectations this year in terms of food production compared to last year because last year was it had really improved this year what do we expect do we expect another season of us starving or lack of food you know because food security is among the government big for agenda this year we expect a drop in the food production owing to the fact that the drought that has hit the country recently this being the month that we receive the long lanes which are vital for food production in the country so therefore we don't expect that the country you produce enough food for the citizens we expect a drop because you know with the farmers in the western region in transoya they usually say maize and wheat farming require a lot of rain and require a lot of farm input so chances are that the food production this year will be minimal compared to last year yeah yeah what's you take on that uh that presents an opportunity for agil culturalists i mean farmers in the villages and those are practicing small scale farming on their farms uh they can irrigate the yard for food production uh to meet the uh the deficiency of food that will resort from the lack of lack of flames yeah it also presents opportunity for the government to release the uh the grains that they buy anjuri from the farmers and they store the ncpb you can release the grains at favorable prices for the consumers yeah for the farmers yes we continue this discussion here on why 254 so don't go anywhere we're going to take a very short break we'll be back after this why 254 imagine and welcome back in tonight we are discussing matters agriculture and why youth are not taking up farming as part of employment in despite farming contributing 26 percent of the country's GDP remember it can be part of this conversation using a social media platform that is why 254 channel across all social media platform or you can use hashtag why 254 updates and tonight is to do you have a request an agriculture agribusiness student right agribusiness or agribusiness yeah you know i got it right okay moving on what because because farmers in the western region usually complain about post harvest losses there is no way they can store their their production food production they end up losing almost even 40 percent of what they have harvested harvested and what do you think what can be done what the government can do what what can we do to improve or to reduce these post harvest losses first thing i would like to acknowledge that a post harvest rose is one of the contributors to the losses that the farmers are incurring and i think that there are opportunities that the government uh can implement to counter this uh a problem that the farmers are facing first three post harvest losses resort from uh the hard ring mechanism how the farmers out of the produce can resort to post harvest losses so uh look at the transport systems that are in place most of the of the produce goes bad where it's on transit from the farm to the market can imagine uh produce like vegetables which are highly perishable they are probably going to get damaged before they reach the market so currently the government can provide a refrigeration refrigerated trucks that transport a highly perishable products the government can build storage facilities for the farmers so the product products or the grains can be stored in conditions that we remit uh instances that would resort into uh damage yeah and i think the opportunities are too many that can be implemented that's so many implementation because last year we had cases of a national serial board not having room to store food production like maize they was in plenty so they had no place to store what can be done to improve on that issue i think to avoid such cases where we don't have anywhere we can store our production maize production and even wheat production even rice yes so we need to expand our storage capacity and we need to stop import export i mean importing food produce before we buy from the rocker producers until until it's exhausted apart from storage what other challenges does agriculture sector is facing right now in kenya what are the other challenges they are several of those charges and firstly i would like to begin with the one of the major charge and that is the middlemen i know they create the rink between the producer and the and the consumer now the middlemen are really take a very huge chunk of a farmers of the farmers income so they buy at very low prices and they sell to the consumer said comparatively high prices which are leaps of the farmers part of their income and another charge would be access to credit access to credit the farmers are actually complaining they don't have enough credit uh to finance their production activities uh there are several charges and the government needs to step to step in and try and provide uh solutions to these charges and we've had cases of circles denying loans to these small scale farmers or even farmers in general what could be the reason why are these circles denying these farmers loans or funds uh first three uh the the circles uh are not sure whether they can bank on the farmers to pay their own sometime taking into account that uh the losses the farmers experience are too way too high uh the the security the farmers uh the circle cannot be so much uh so that the farmer will pay together with the interest yeah and now moving on to youths you know the other day ministry of agriculture livestock and fishery issued a report that only three percent of Kenyan students choose to go and pursue courses like agriculture forestry and fisheries why are they why are you shying away from such courses is it not attractive enough like IT or ACON or statistics or business or these other business related courses the course I first would like to accept uh the the the course may not be as attractive as other courses are guys want to do only IT they want to do IT uh want to do engineering they want to do medicine uh that's based on the the information that exists our students are being informed that these are the big courses this way you can get a lot of money this way you get a job instantri of which uh it's not true that's probably an reason that exists among the students uh agriculture provides uh very many opportunities for students who want to venture into uh commercial farming commercial production of food uh you can become a lecturer yeah when you study agriculture you can lecture in the agricultural department in Kenyan universities you can pursue masters degree you can get to the government there are a lot of opportunities for students need to stop believing on or accepting the existing uh ideology that when you get into agriculture you are definitely going to be a farmer in gumboots and soiled huts uh that's not the the case we only need white collar jobs and what should be done what should the government do to encourage more youths to take up such courses and to take up farming as a form of employment because you know agriculture plays two major roles there are other roles yeah but two major roles like employment it creates employment for instance if I have a farm somewhere and I'm planting maize it will create employment because I need people to plough my land to plant those maize yes it creates employment also it enhances food security in the country I don't what do you think the government should do to encourage more farmers to take up agriculture and farming as part of employment uh there are many things the government can do to encourage farmers to take up agricultural activities first of all it will start by solving the charges that limit or discourage potential farmers from going into agriculture and uh like lack of credit facilities is one of the charges that discourages people from going into agriculture when you hear your neighbor there complaining that he or she does not have enough money to buy farm inputs to pay workers to buy farm machinery so you are kind of going to be be discouraged from undertaking that enterprise activity as I called the government would create awareness that this agriculture is quite a potential business for the access of investors and business people through information through platforms like ICT, social media, the media news on television yeah meaning is getting information to potential farmers and also introducing agriculture courses in school but you have agriculture courses they are not as much in primary yes in primary we do not have but in secondary the secondary level we do have education so should these agriculture course or our subject should we begin from as early as primary just to create awareness that actually agriculture is a form of employment yeah yeah it should actually start primary school as early as primary school what are these other also other innovations that the private sector you can bring in as well as the government can bring in to attract more youths you know youths nowadays take survey what are these these uh innovation in terms of ICT and other things that can encourage more youths to take up agriculture in farming probably let's say the introducing krimo biashara platforms online whereby farmers or those practicing agribusiness can portray the success that they have achieved probably you find a farmer saying that I raised chicken for six months and this profit that I gained you see you inform another potential farmer to engage in a business and in terms of policies laws are they favorable to our youths because not every youth can access land can access this input these barriers to entry yes do you think these terms and policies do they favor Mavijana wetu? easy terms uh easy policies in biasana the policies are not favorable for agriculture and I think the government needs to change the way they implement or they formulate the policy they should formulate the policy with the interest of the poor farmer in maid not with the interest of the rich let's say the rich people who really want to benefit from agriculture where living behind the poor village farmer the small scale farmers that is yeah and the youths yeah so the the policy should focus mainly on those practicing it in the villages in small scale or either large scale yeah yes and why do you think youths opt for white cola jobs and not agriculture because there is an existing aeration that white cola jobs are pay more than you you can get in agriculture yeah it's kind of an aeration because you can actually get so much in agriculture than probably an office worker would get in a month or in half a year and which is in which is the easiest to easiest crop let me let me put it that way for lack of a better word easiest crop that youths can take up and the maturity takes a shorter period and it can actually also attract youths apart from poultry apart from poultry farming which other form of farming that can use take up youths take up and they bring quick results because you know us youths can have it was a raka raka to malizan inayo to put a door to a male yes i think there is a variety of crops that are mature faster so you can harvest in less than three months or between three to four months and actually most of these crops in Kenya mature within three months four months sweet potatoes takes a long time but potatoes they take three to four months though they cannot be cultivated in all areas in the country that's the that's one of the challenges but i think vegetables like cabbages they take close to five months kales skumawiki you can do fruits farming maybe pass on fruit though i don't know how wrong it will take but i think there are variety of these crops which take a short time to mature you can research farmers would now get in the internet yeah and find out these crops mm-hmm and there are other lucrative crops that i can actually attract their youths yes that was erik uh an agribusiness expert and student from Jomakena University of Agriculture and Technology thank you so much erik for making time for us yes and we've been discussing matters agriculture and why youths not taking up agriculture's form of employment despite agriculture contributing 26 percent of kenya's GDP well you remember you can keep on talking to us using a social media platform Y254 channel across social media platform well that's all we had here on Y254 business news my name is Miriam Masawa good night good bless you