Abstract

The decline of youth engagement in agriculture worldwide amidst an increasing global population remains a big challenge to ensuring food security for future generations. This phenomenon is worsened by the shortage of professional female agriculturists, though they comprise about 60% to 80% of the traditional workforce in the agriculture sector of most developing countries (Beintema & Di Marcantonio, 2009). This descriptive study had 102 participants who were members of Young Farmers Clubs (YFCs) from two secondary schools in eastern Uganda. The study’s purpose was to determine the perceptions of members of YFCs on their intent to pursue agriculture-related career preparation after graduating from secondary school, including indications of familial support for preparatory experiences. The findings indicate that a large majority (95.1%) of the students was likely or highly likely to continue with their education at the post-secondary level. A high percentage (70.6%) was likely or highly likely to pursue agriculture-related career preparation; however, significant differences existed between the sexes. Female club members were less certain than their male peers about pursuing higher education involving the study of agriculture. Additional research should be conducted on how to attract more females to study agriculture at the tertiary level, especially in developing countries.

Agricultural extension services the world over have been instrumental in ensuring agriculturists stay abreast of new developments to improve their productivity and economic livelihoods. This historical study describes the origin and practice of agricultural extension in the former British colonies of Zimbabwe, Uganda, and Kenya before their independence and during the decades afterward, and identifies some of the challenges impacting extension services in these countries. Over time, in a bid to improve their agricultural sectors, these countries employed a number of approaches to providing extension/advisory services. Some methods, however, were coercive and little more than the enforcement of laws and customs prejudicial to the nations' Black farmers. This often resulted in cruel treatment, exploitation, and oppression of these farmers, especially during the colonial era. In the post-colonial era, no single approach to extension delivery has been without shortcomings (Davis, 2008). To that end, a pluralistic paradigm has shown promise in mitigating the limitations of any single approach. Additional research should be conducted to determine the longstanding impact of using chiefs and other law enforcers as extension agents on individuals' present-day perceptions about extension and its potential for meeting the needs of smallholder, resource-poor farmers in the future.

The increasing number of unemployed and underemployed youth across the globe, especially in developing countries, has reached alarming levels. In Africa, for example, this phenomenon has led to some youth making treacherous journeys across the Mediterranean Sea to Europe and other parts of the world in search of better livelihoods. Such an influx of immigrants, primarily to Europe and North America, has caused resentment and outcries by many citizens of the affected nations. Some of these challenges, however, could be allayed by engaging youth in income-generating projects, including agricultural entrepreneurship, i.e., agripreneurship, to create jobs and improve livelihoods. This may be achieved through Youth-Adult Partnerships (YAPs) by which youth and adults work together on agricultural projects of mutual interest. This study explored the experiences of adult partners in Uganda who collaborated with youth on their school-based, agripreneurial projects (SAPs) involving the raising of broiler chickens. Because of their partnership working on SAPs, both the youths’ and adults’ knowledge and understanding of concepts related to agripreneurship and raising of broilers chickens improved. The need exists to provide an enabling environment to promote an agripreneurial culture among youth through Y-APs if we seek to inspire them to pursue agripreneurship and related opportunities for job creation while also enabling the food security of communities and improved livelihoods for their citizens. Keywords: agripreneurship; improving livelihoods; project-based learning; school-based agripreneurial projects; youth unemployment; youth-adult partnerships