Agriculture as a Sector of Opportunity for Young People in Africa

Brooks, Karen; Zorya, Sergiy; Gautam, Amy; Goyal, Aparajita

doi:10.1596/1813-9450-6473

Cited by 70 publications

(55 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…But, as Njeru et al (2015) and Noorani (2015) contends, lack of incentives and drudgery are some of the reasons why youth are disinterested in agriculture and that in most parts of the world, agriculture is seen as a less worthwhile subject or as a last resort for under-achievers. These study findings are supported by Brooks et al (2013) and Noorani (2015) that agriculture in Kenya is not the thing to do unless everything else fails and it is not perceived by many as an activity that provides a good standard of living (Leavy & Hossain, 2014). Evidence in East Africa also shows that the status of agriculture as "a poor man's job" is further reinforced in schools when students are sent to dig the school farm as a form of punishment for a mistake.…”

Section: Correlation Measure For Youth Perception Of Agriculture and supporting

confidence: 69%

“…In the most adverse and risky situations, youth have an extraordinary resilience and ability to cope (AGRA, 2015). Youth are the driving force behind economic prosperity in future decades, only if policies and programs are in place to enhance their opportunities (Brooks, Amy, Goyal, & Zorya, 2013). However, their interest in farming is likely to be positively influenced by their perceptions on agricultures among other challenges faced.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Youth in Agriculture; Perceptions and Challenges for Enhanced Participation in Kajiado North Sub-County, Kenya

Njeru¹

2017

GJAS

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Agriculture in Kenya can develop gainful employment opportunities for youth that would enable them exploit their economic innovation and enhance equal opportunities for the male and female youth for national economic growth. Improving youth participation in the agricultural sector is thus of paramount importance for the nation to develop. Youth's interest in agriculture is however likely to be positively related to their perceptions in terms of agricultural-related activities mostly being portrayed as difficult and assumed to be meant for the ageing rural population. The relationship between youth's perception on agriculture and their participation in agriculture in Kajiado North Sub-County was poorly understood and hence the need for this study, which used a crosssectional design to collect data from 397 randomly, selected youth and 22 youth and agricultural officers. Content validity of the youth and agricultural officers' questionnaires was ascertained by extension experts while reliability was determined through a pilot test involving 30 respondents. The reliability coefficient were 0.86α and 0.80α respectively, which were above the 0.70 threshold for acceptable reliability. The study showed that there is a statistically significant relationship between youth perception on agriculture and their participation in the study area (r=0.675 p=0.01), p=.001). The study revealed youth's negative perceptions of agriculture as a reason why many did not participate in the sector; where 18.1% youth felt that there were no role models in agriculture and 17.6% claimed that agriculture was not profitable. The government and other development partners should come up with strategies of addressing the issue of negative perception that has an implication on youth participation in agriculture. Government can ensure that agricultural education and training reflects the needs of the agricultural labour market and enhance youth's familiarity with the world of work, including its practical challenges and rewards. Youth should be directly linked to business partners and they should be given hands-on experience.

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Section: Correlation Measure For Youth Perception Of Agriculture and supporting

confidence: 69%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Youth in Agriculture; Perceptions and Challenges for Enhanced Participation in Kajiado North Sub-County, Kenya

Njeru¹

2017

GJAS

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“…Thus, rural poverty can be addressed in the short term through promoting entrepreneurship and enhancing the access of people to these assets. (60) In SSA this challenge is compounded as the number of young people is predicted to more than double from 126 million to 265 million between 2010 and 2050 (61) showing both the opportunities for, and the negative impact, if an entrepreneurial mindset is not widely adopted.…”

Section: Lack Of Entrepreneurial Mind Setsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The era of sustainable agricultural development in Africa: Understanding the benefits and constraints

Adenle

Azadi

Manning

2017

Food Reviews International

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“…If empowered in agricultural production, they are likely to play an important role in ensuring food security for future generations (Manyamba and Molokomme, 2014). There is limited research that looks at food security through a youth lens (Brooks et al, 2013). When development practitioners target youth for intervention, they should view them as assets instead of viewing them as a hard group to target (Etgen, Tindamanyire and Fuller 2009).…”

Section: Food Securitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing the relationship between youth capabilities and food security: a case study of a rainwater harvesting project in South Africa

Owen¹,

Goldin²

2015

WSA

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Rainwater harvesting presents a viable option for securing water availability in order to increase food production. The study focuses on rural youth in Luphisi and Dwaleni villages in the Mpumalanga Province and considers the relationship between youth capabilities and food security. The study uses qualitative data collected from focus group discussions and quantitative data from a baseline survey within the context of an integrated rainwater harvesting project. The indicators tapped into attributes related to trust, social cohesion, inclusion and sociability, and examined these within the context of the 'capability approach', to consider whether and in what ways these attributes can be linked to food security. Results show that youth have high levels of certain capabilities such as trust, social cohesion and inclusion, co-operation, self-esteem, and meaning. However, in other dimensions there are fewer opportunities, like access to networks, access to knowledge and information and sociability, which are lacking among youth and restrict opportunities for them to engage with issues around food and water security. The Chi-square test was used to investigate the relationship between youth capabilities and food security and at p<0.05 results showed that there was no relationship between youth capabilities and food security in Dwaleni. There were however three capabilities showing significant statistical relationships between youth capabilities and food security in Luphisi: collective action and co-operation, social cohesion and self-esteem. We argue that there are opportunities to build on existing capabilities and that, overall, the potential of youth for engaging in water resources management is not being tapped into.

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Agriculture as a Sector of Opportunity for Young People in Africa

Cited by 70 publications

References 32 publications

Youth in Agriculture; Perceptions and Challenges for Enhanced Participation in Kajiado North Sub-County, Kenya

Youth in Agriculture; Perceptions and Challenges for Enhanced Participation in Kajiado North Sub-County, Kenya

The era of sustainable agricultural development in Africa: Understanding the benefits and constraints

Assessing the relationship between youth capabilities and food security: a case study of a rainwater harvesting project in South Africa

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