Background: Youth engagement in agriculture in developing countries is of paramount importance since much of their livelihoods depend on this sector.Aim: This article therefore aims at assessing the influence of studying agri-entrepreneurship courses on youth farm entrepreneurial intention.Setting: Three of the 55 Folk Development Colleges (FDCs) in Tanzania.Methods: A cross-sectional design was employed and 300 respondents were randomly selected from three FDCs offering agricultural programmes. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected and analysed by using descriptive and inferential statistics in which frequencies, percentages, mean, standard deviation and Somers’s D Model were employed.Results: The results show that there is a significant relationship between agri-entrepreneurship knowledge and skills acquired and youth entrepreneurial intentions towards farming.Conclusion: The FDCs’ agri-entrepreneurial training provides knowledge and skills which influence youth farm entrepreneurial intention. However, the strength of this influence ranges from weak to moderate depending on various factors. Regular reviews of curricula to enhance the beliefs that develop a view of farm entrepreneurship as a paying business is recommended. The analysis and implication of this finding has been further explained.
Promoting industrial sector has been among key development strategies in most of developing countries including Tanzania. Industrialization has been insisted in Tanzania by all regimes since independence. In the quest to promote industrial economy, for decades, co-operatives have been involved directly and indirectly in the process. Government recognizes co-operatives as key development partners in the current move toward a middle income and semi-industrialized status. This calls for sorting out clearly on how co-operatives can engage in the industrialization process. This paper aims to share experience on practical and theoretical strategies on how best co-operatives can engage directly and indirectly in the industrialization process in Tanzania. The authors adapted a qualitative approach by making a critical literature review to understand key issues and to guide discussions made in this paper. Content analysis was used to analyze collected qualitative data from reviewed works. Secondary data were also collected from various studies, including Government’s reports to cement discussions made. Consultations through phone calls were also made where various stakeholders were contacted for purpose of verifying existing data and getting other data in relation to co-operative industrial investments in various places. The discussion focused on various strategies that co-operatives can directly and indirectly engage in the industrialization process. The paper also describes the mechanisms that may be used to finance the industrialization process through co-operative and possible constraints to such investments. The paper concludes that there are direct and indirect options that co-operatives may apply to enter into industrialization process and in financing the process. This is based on the assumption that co-operatives will adhere to aspects of technological improvement, managerial competence, innovation and quality control in their operations
Given the paucity of youth employment opportunities in the non-agricultural formal sector in developing countries much more needs to be done to attract youth into the agricultural sector. The main objective of this paper was to assess the influence of the agricultural training on youth farm entrepreneurial attitudes. A cross-sectional design was employed and 300 respondents were randomly selected from three Folk Development Colleges (FDCs). The data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings show that youth have favourable attitudes towards farm entrepreneurship. Furthermore, a significant difference was found in terms of farm entrepreneurial attitude across sex, age groups, college and programme studied. It is concluded that training in colleges where agricultural courses are blended with an entrepreneurship course have positive influence on youth attitude towards farm entrepreneurship. It is generally recommended that more theoretical components on the socio-economic benefits of farm entrepreneurship need to be added to the existing curriculum.
Key Words: Courses, entrepreneurial attitude, intention, unemployment
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