Entrepreneurial Potential and Agribusiness Desirability among Youths in South Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo

Abstract

In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), entrepreneurship in the agriculture sector remains for youth a key pillar for income creation. However, few are attracted by agribusiness despite stakeholders’ efforts toward engaging youth in agriculture. Therefore, this study examines the relationship between entrepreneurial potential characteristics and youth desirability to start an enterprise in agriculture among 514 young people in Eastern DRC. This study revealed that youth in South Kivu have different entrepreneurship potential features and agribusiness desirability levels according to their gender and living area. Hence, the youth’s agribusiness desirability is motivated by an awareness of emerging agripreneurial activities, land ownership, parent involvement in farming activities as a role model, perceived agribusiness as an employment source, management-organizing and opportunistic competencies, market analysis, negotiating, and planning skills. Therefore, efforts to attract youth into agribusiness should focus on the use of media, the creation of awareness of available agribusiness initiatives in their area, and the setup of land policy. This is in addition to putting in place capacity-building programs on entrepreneurial and business skills through incubators, and the formalization of youth agribusiness groups that foster capitalizing experiences between new and accelerated agripreneurial enterprises, with the support of parents and financial institutions, focusing on gender sensitivity, in both rural and urban areas.

Drivers of Entrepreneurial Resilience of Farm Entrepreneurs in Davao Region

“…Global Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences eISSN: 2957-3602 pISSN: Page No. [38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52] Results of the study revealed significant relationship in the level of entrepreneurial skills and entrepreneurial orientation, this denotes that each unit of improvement in entrepreneurial skills and orientation increases entrepreneurial resilience. However, entrepreneurial orientation could be better determining entrepreneurial resilience.…”

“…According to Nawaz, (2023), entrepreneurs Global Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences eISSN: 2957-3602 pISSN: Page No. [38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52] need to be resilient in order to cope and adapt with constantly changing business environment and withstand any disruptions. Entrepreneurial resilience can boost agricultural entrepreneurs' performance and success in a variety of ways.…”

“…Entrepreneurial resilience can boost agricultural entrepreneurs' performance and success in a variety of ways. It enables people to adapt to changing conditions, persevere in the face of adversity, and capitalize on opportunities (Simbeko et al, (2023). In the midst of any obstacles and unpredictability, the capacity to be resilient is critical for agricultural entrepreneurs to not just survive but thrive.…”

“…Global Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences eISSN: 2957-3602 pISSN: Page No [38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46](Bernard, Kevin & Khin, 2016;Fisher et al, 2016).arange of challenges affecting their entrepreneurial resilience including climate change, market volatility and labor shortages.…”

Impact of CS-IPM on Key Social Welfare Aspects of Smallholder Farmers’ Livelihoods

“…Thus, this study conforms to the Theory of Reasoned Pursuit of Goals (TRGP) of Ajzen and Guglanski [40] in such a way that it applies Climate Smart Integrated Pest Management (CS-IPM). In addition, the motivation to engage in a certain type of farming activity is largely influenced by the perception of the possibility that using farming expertise would result in success in achieving agri-food development goals [40,41]. Literally, smallholder farmers might be motivated when the choice may have positive social, environmental, and welfare effects to being entities profit maximizing [9,14,19,21].…”