TY - JOUR
T1 - From diagnosis to action
T2 - Understanding youth strengths and hurdles and using decision-making tools to foster youth-inclusive sustainable agriculture intensification
AU - Zulu, Leo C.
AU - Djenontin, Ida N.S.
AU - Grabowski, Phillip
N1 - Funding Information:
This study is part of the Achieving Equitable Benefits from SAI through Effective Tools and Metrics Project S35, and the authors gratefully acknowledge funding from UK Aid, the UK government, under the Sustainable Intensification Research and Learning in Africa (SAIRLA) program. The funders were not involved in the study design, data collection, analysis and interpretation, report writing, and the decision to submit the article for publication. Further, the views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not reflect the UK government's official policies. We thank other research team colleagues, Dr. Akosua Darkwah and Dr. Irene Egyir at the University of Ghana, and Dr. Judith Kamoto and Dr, Jessica Kampanje-Phiri of the Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources in Malawi for the data used and national leadership, and Dr. Gundula Fischer of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture based in Tanzania for overall leadership on the project. We also thank local experts, community members and leaders at the study sites in Malawi and Ghana who sacrificed their time to participate in the research; as well as research assistants in Malawi (Gabriel Sajeni, Pemphero Majawa, Stanley Chirwa and Lydia Sichali) and Ghana for their dedications and commendable work. We are also grateful to Kipo Jimah, the project monitoring and evaluation officer for compiling, analyzing and reporting on the workshop evaluation data. Finally, we acknowledge the help of the anonymous reviewers of this article who provided very useful comments to improve the article.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2021/2
Y1 - 2021/2
N2 - By 2050, the youth population in Sub-Sahara Africa (SSA) is expected to exceed 60%. To contain the ensuing youth bulge, reduce unemployment and ‘flight’ from rural areas, and increase agricultural productivity, countries seek policies to enhance youth engagement in agriculture. However, orthodox assumptions and locally-inappropriate policies keep youth engagement low. We use qualitative enquiry with focus group discussions and key informant interviews in Ghana and Malawi to examine youth strengths, aspirations, barriers to sustainable agriculture intensification (SAI), and implications for enhancing their inclusion. We further examine the potential of three equity-analysis tools to guide decision making on youth-inclusive SAI. Findings show that youth face limited access to land and capital, limited involvement in decision making and in farmer/development groups, and negative attitudes from community members and officials. Land access was complex, mediated by land-inheritance system, land type, population pressures, culture, and land markets. Land-access problems were acute in matrilineal Malawi, particularly for young men. Decision makers attested to the relevance and usefulness of selected youth-equity analysis tools, and to positive training outcomes on awareness, knowledge, and skills in using them. We contribute context-specific evidence on youth's positive contributions in SAI and the need to recognize them with more targeted and location-differentiated interventions on resources access, including land. Findings also inform the quest for pathways to move the youth-agriculture/SAI debate into tangible actions from below, equipped with youth-analysis tools for decision makers to foster youth-inclusive SAI in Ghana, Malawi, and other countries with similar contexts.
AB - By 2050, the youth population in Sub-Sahara Africa (SSA) is expected to exceed 60%. To contain the ensuing youth bulge, reduce unemployment and ‘flight’ from rural areas, and increase agricultural productivity, countries seek policies to enhance youth engagement in agriculture. However, orthodox assumptions and locally-inappropriate policies keep youth engagement low. We use qualitative enquiry with focus group discussions and key informant interviews in Ghana and Malawi to examine youth strengths, aspirations, barriers to sustainable agriculture intensification (SAI), and implications for enhancing their inclusion. We further examine the potential of three equity-analysis tools to guide decision making on youth-inclusive SAI. Findings show that youth face limited access to land and capital, limited involvement in decision making and in farmer/development groups, and negative attitudes from community members and officials. Land access was complex, mediated by land-inheritance system, land type, population pressures, culture, and land markets. Land-access problems were acute in matrilineal Malawi, particularly for young men. Decision makers attested to the relevance and usefulness of selected youth-equity analysis tools, and to positive training outcomes on awareness, knowledge, and skills in using them. We contribute context-specific evidence on youth's positive contributions in SAI and the need to recognize them with more targeted and location-differentiated interventions on resources access, including land. Findings also inform the quest for pathways to move the youth-agriculture/SAI debate into tangible actions from below, equipped with youth-analysis tools for decision makers to foster youth-inclusive SAI in Ghana, Malawi, and other countries with similar contexts.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jrurstud.2021.01.023
DO - 10.1016/j.jrurstud.2021.01.023
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85099566782
SN - 0743-0167
VL - 82
SP - 196
EP - 209
JO - Journal of Rural Studies
JF - Journal of Rural Studies
ER -
