Engagement of youth in agriculture in low- and middle-income countries may offer opportunities to curb underemployment, urban migration, disillusionment of youth and social unrest, as well as to lift individuals and communities from poverty and hunger. Lack of education or skills training has been cited as a challenge to engage youth in the sector. Here we systematically interrogate the literature for the evaluation of skills training programmes for youth in low- and middle-income countries. Sixteen studies—nine quantitative, four qualitative and three mixed methods—from the research and grey literature documented the effects of programmes on outcomes relating to youth engagement, including job creation, income, productivity and entrepreneurship in agriculture. Although we find that skills training programmes report positive effects on our chosen outcomes, like previous systematic reviews we find the topic to chronically lack evaluation. Given the interest that donors and policymakers have in youth engagement in agriculture, our systematic review uncovers a gap in the knowledge of their effectiveness.

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Engaging in nonfarm activities has been considered an important strategy to increase household income in rural Burkina Faso. However, the empirical evidence on how income from nonfarm activities contributes to household food security in the country is limited. Relying on nationwide household panel data and an instrumental variable approach, this study shows that income from nonfarm activities positively affects household food stability and overall food expenditure. The share of food expenditure is also found to be negatively associated with income from nonfarm activities, suggesting an improvement in households' economic status. This evidence has crucial policy implications for food security in rural Burkina Faso, where households face severe income shocks due to both climatic variability and poor investments in agriculture.