Meru Central coffee cooperative union ltd value the contribution of youth within the value coffee chain. This is the reason youth have been given a chance to farm, work and lead within the cooperative.

Youth are involved in the following activities within the cooperative;

  1. Coffee production
  2. Operations
  3. Leadership
  4. Coffee processing
  5. Coffee spraying
  6. Extension services
  7. Seedlings raising

The total membership of youth within Meru Central Coffee Cooperative Union is around 15 % of the total membership. The number is very little because most youth are not interested in coffee farming. This is alarming since lack of youth involvement means there will be no continuity and the coffee industry within the region risk being closed

In order to increase the number of youth within the union we are engaging them in the following activities:

  • Training them on entrepreneurial skills
  • Giving them free coffee seedlings to start their coffee bushes
  • Free soil sampling to enable them apply right fertilizers
  • Establishing coffee seedling nurseries under them as an alternative income generating activities
  • Diversification by engaging them in other economic activities eg macadamia farming, raising avocado trees, fish farming and housing.
  • Lobbying on behalf of the cooperative
  • Changing by laws to make it easy for them to be elected in the cooperative boards

Through external partners like Agriterra and We-effect we are training youth on leadership so that they form youth councils which we are using to empower, recruit, lobby and increase youth participation in the coffee cooperatives.
So far Katheri, Kathera, kiangua have formed youth councils and Nyaki, Nthimbiri, Kiegucia are in the process of forming youth councils. The other societies will be introduced gradually because we intend to have a MCCCU youth council when all the 97 factories and 34 societies will have strong youth councils. Youth councils will act as incubation centre for quality cooperative and society leaders.