![Gregory Kipchirchir, a 21-year-old Kenyan youth with a moving agribusiness enterprise. [Photo: Courtesy]](https://i0.wp.com/www.jamhuri-news.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Kipchirchir.jpg?resize=510%2C381&ssl=1 "Kipchirchir")
When coronavirus pandemic struck, 21-year-old Gregory Kipchirchir hang his education boots and turned to agribusiness.
For him, he was continuing a life-long passion that is farming. In fact, he is a third-year Agribusiness management student at Egerton University.
What he did not know is that his agribusiness enterprise would lead to recognition by Britain’s Royal Family.
On Wednesday during the celebration of the International Youth Day, Kipchirir had his enterprise in Trans Nzoia County acclaimed By the Royal Family and was nominated for a Duke of Edinburg’s International Award along four other contestants.
The Royal Family in a video said: “Today is International Youth Day. To celebrate, we’re handing our Instagram stories over to young people from around the world who’ll be telling us about their lives during the global pandemic as they’ve been working towards The Duke of Edinburgh’s.”
Kipchirchir was nominated alongside Tereza from Czech Republic, Metta and Jordan from Indonesia and Rochelle from Canada.
On half an acre, he has managed to put his skills into practice by growing vegetables to not only feed his family but also the community. Besides securing a meal for his family, he is also earning from his passion that is farming.
“I chose agriculture during this time of the pandemic so that I can produce food for my family and also the community. Initially my family and the neighborhood relied on the market for fresh farm vegetables which retailed at exorbitant prices. But nowadays we got fresh sustainable vegetables supply enough for my family and surplus is sold to the neighbors,” he noted.
In June, he became a Kenyan sensation following his effort to change lives in the rural areas during the coronavirus pandemic through his agribusiness venture.
This saw him win a presidential award.
His skills have impacted a lot of youth in his home area who have turned to agribusiness.
“At the moment majority of the youths have embraced farming unlike before and dissuaded from engaging in immoral activities,” he stated.
