African Rural Youth Engagement in Agribusiness: Achievements, Limitations, and Lessons

Abstract

Engaging rural youth in agribusiness has become an important strategy to create employment opportunities in Africa. To this end, governments and development partners have implemented various interventions that facilitate youth engagement in agribusiness for several years. However, there is a dearth of evidence on what worked and what did not work well, making it difficult to inform evidence-based policy making. In an effort to fill this knowledge gap, a comprehensive literature review of the outcomes of interventions related to youth engagement in agribusiness was conducted using a deductive coding approach. Results showed that the interventions implemented by governments and development partners across Africa have succeeded in producing favorable outcomes despite some limitations. Interventions that integrate capacity development, financial support for startups, and continuous mentorship on the technical and financial aspects of youth-run agribusiness projects proved successful in enhancing youth engagement in agribusiness. This suggests that the design and implementation of future interventions should be based on an integrated approach that considers diversity of youths’ aspirations and shared capabilities, interests, expectations, as well as challenges associated with access to resources and participation in collective action. The design of future interventions should also be built on strong partnerships among rural communities, academia, research, and private sector for increased impact on livelihood improvements.

Generational dynamics of agricultural intensification in Malawi: challenges for the youth and elderly smallholder farmers

“…Between 2013 and 2017, a large decrease of mean cultivated land is noted. In contrast to Yami et al (2019) who argue that youth in Malawi have gained access to land through land reforms, our data suggests that youth throughout the study have had the smallest cultivated area on average.…”

“…However, beyond these policies few programmes and interventions exist for promoting their interests. This situation is not very different from what obtains in other parts of Africa in the sense that generational issues tend not to be fully integrated into developmental programmes (Yami et al, 2019).…”

“…Therefore, contextual and social differences need to be emphasized to understand the different opportunities available to individuals' (Sumberg et al, 2012;Sumberg & Okali, 2013). A recent review on youth engagement in agribusiness in Sub-Sahara Africa confirms that the diversity of youth's aspirations and capabilities need to be acknowledged for interventions on youth in agriculture to be successful (Yami et al, 2019).…”

Impact of Agricultural Programs on Youth Engagement in Agribusiness in Nigeria: A Case Study

“…This is because majority of Nigerian youths stay in the rural areas (Allen et al, 2016) where the bulk of agricultural activities take place. It is believed that young engagement in agribusiness will not only help to reduce unemployment among youths but, has great implication on poverty eradication, food security and economic development (Yami et al, 2019).…”

National extension policy and state level implementation: The case of Niger State in Nigeria

“…Meanwhile, most of the African youth live in rural areas and have limited opportunities for gainful employment (Allen et al, 2010;Ghebru et al, 2018;Yeboah and Jayne, 2018). However, they have untapped potential to transform the agricultural sector through innovation and agribusiness (Ghebru et al, 2018;Yami et al, 2019). Contributors to the discussion during the workshop said that agriculture is currently suffering from an "image problem" among youth in Nigeria and there is a need to showcase successful role models or references in agriculture which will attract young people to agriculture and encourage youth to stay or diversify into the sector.…”