 Good morning. I'll start with two questions. How many of you in this hall have got a Twitter handle? By show of heart? Or they tweet? How many are on Facebook? Almost everyone. Okay, I'll tell you a story. I'm Joseph Machadia from Kenya. And I'm a son of a peasant farmer. And I was brought up in the village, like any other little boy. And in school life was good, because we did not know many things. And growing as a son of a farmer, a small-scale farmer, my dad made sure that I follow his footsteps, that is being a farmer also. So every time he wakes up on weekends, he could invite me to go and assist him in the field. It wasn't easy, but that is all what I knew, agriculture. When I went to high school, I never liked to be in agriculture. But my high school teacher in agriculture gave me almost all the marks. So it was like 49 out of 50. Very good, Joseph, keep it up. That inspired me. But at home my dad was telling me, if you want to have a decent life, drive, be a bright student and take another course, a professional course, like being a lawyer or a doctor. So I realized that maybe agriculture would be a subject that would be able to appraise my marks so that my average grade would make me to be admitted in that professional course. But the inspiration of being told, keep it up, Joseph, excellent. I think made me meet also to look forward to get the marks. The exams when it comes to get that marks of excellent, keep it up, Joseph. And so I got a good grade and I was admitted to a university to do a course related to biology and agriculture. But I was to be a high school teacher and I did finish and I was employed by the government to be a high school teacher. But before I went there, for an internship in one of the organization that carries out research on insects, it's called ICPE, International Center of Insect Physiology and Ecology. And I was interested in these insects called bees. You know, bees are very hard working. And I was introduced to working with the community in the village. And I realized that the community have got charges. They have many questions that are not answered. So I took that initiative to study the bees and to answer some of the question, especially the behavior. And that's how I came across stimulus bees. I did my best and I got all the question, went to the lab, answered and went back to the community. It was inspirational. I got to work in agriculture. When I was working with the community, every time we would invite or we would call for meetings and I realized there were old men coming, old, really old. Last year, our president was concerned that in Kenya, an average farmer is about 65 years of age. I realized that this is an opportunity. What is happening to the youth? Why are they not here? If you google or you search, there are so many things that are documented as to why the youth are in agriculture. We know them. Culture, lack of flood, lack of finance. But what are we doing? On 18th December last year, 2012 seated somewhere, I realized that you need to go where the youth are and because I am one of them and you all said that you are on Facebook, I opened a Facebook page and the name was Mukurima Yang. Mukurima is a Kiswahiri name and it means a farmer and I realized in Kenya, youth like a language that combines Kiswahiri and English so I thought maybe I'm getting one of the recommendations people say make it sexy. So the Mukurima page was opened and I was the first person to like it. By January I had five and I kept on posting good things. What do you think about this steering in quotes other pictures from other pages and posting them there. Then liking became and people by February I had almost over the hazard. Then I saw you are here now. So I realized that I was inspired. What can I do to inspire these young people so that we can have interaction in this page. I started getting stories that are inspirational. Many people say that youth are not in agriculture as I can say today they are. All what we do we do not have those stories of those young people who are in agriculture. They are not recognized. We don't celebrate them. We celebrate the musician, the footballers. So I got the stories and I named them Mukurima Yang champion. If you are champion you are a young person at the age of 32 you are in agriculture you are also educated you have money. I wrote those stories and it became so popular that every week people are looking forward to see who is the next champion. The number grew by June I was having over 7000 with the many champion stories that were inspiring others. Many people are now asking questions how can I do this where can I sell this where can I buy this but I am not good in IT my background is in agriculture so I got another young person who told me that I will make a platform that is interactive where people can ask questions and they can sell their commodities and ask where they can buy and that's how Mukurima Yang Soko was born Soko means a market so it is a webpage you can take a photo of what you are saying give us your information post it there then after 2 minutes is taken to Facebook so you have more readership on Facebook So in July we opened a page where people could market their products and ask any question related on where to buy currently we have over 10,000 people registered there and they are selling and they are buying Our celebs in agriculture were identified by the media and stories were written in the most popular newspaper in East Africa that is the nation media that created a good feeling to them because for the first time young people in agriculture were recognized I was able maybe in a way to solve 3 major problems that is information in agriculture that is relevant to the youth and targeting them because we have lots of information but are they targeting the youth are they relevant to them so we are able to provide that number 2 we were able to provide a marketing platform where they can buy a digitalized market platform for agricultural commodities only but I had the other greatest charge of finance I am not a bank but they kept on asking you are telling us this we can sell but we don't have money then somebody when we were 13,300 suggested that why don't you develop from these numbers a micro savings and we call it Mukulimayang a circle is a cooperative savings driven by us with us and the slogan of young farmers helping young farmers came I was given the mandate to see the legal requirements and all the requirements for registering that circle and last week there were almost 90% of registration so they would have a saving where they can save their money they can elect their leaders and they have a circle where they can now be able to give loans according to their savings what we have learned from that is that group work works and if you are promoting agriculture to the youth it is also good to be a farmer I am a farmer I plant coffee so I can identify myself with them and I talk their language also the young people who are educated are better off to get the message and take it to the rural area because when the rural young people see that an educated person is also able to do that they see it is possible and if you have been able to pool a number of about 10,400 young farmers on social media within 10 months on Facebook interactive I think it is possible and the youth are in agriculture and they are not only in agriculture but they are making money thank you