Excerpt
TABLE OF CONTENTS
DEDICATION
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
TABLE OF CONTENTS
LIST OF TABLES
LIST OF FIGURES
LIST OF APPENDICES
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
ABSTRACT
CHAPTER 1 GENERAL INTRODUCTION
1.0 Introduction
1.1. Background of the study
1.2. Statement of the problem
1.3. Objectives of the research
1.3.1. Specific objective
1.4. Research questions
1.5 Significance of the study
1.6 Summary of introduction
CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW
2.0 Introduction
2.1 Definitions of the key concepts
2.1.1 Agribusiness private sector actors
2.1.2 Agricultural economic opportunities
2.2 Theories used
2.2.1 Direct delivery
2.2.2 Market Facilitative approach
2.3 Empirical studies
2.3.1. Youth participation in the existing agribusiness while sharing in the profit margin
2.3.2. Agribusiness private sector actors’ perceptions towards engaging youth at different levels of their value chain
2.3.3 Barriers that hinder youth to meaningfully engage in existing agribusinesses
2.3.4. Opportunities that exist but are untapped by the youth in the agribusiness environment
2.3.5. How private sector can engage more youths in their businesses
2.4 Conceptual framework
2.5 Summary of the literature review
CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.0. Introduction
3.1. Research Design
3.2. Sampling issues
3.2.1 Study population
3.2.2 Sample selection and size
3.3. Data collection techniques
3.4. Data analysis techniques
3.4.1. Quantitative data processing and analysis
3.4.2. Qualitative data processing and analysis
3.4.3 Measurement of variables
3.5. Data presentation
3.6. Ethical consideration
3.7. Limitations of the study
3.8. Summary of the methodology
CHAPTER 4 DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS
4.0 Introduction
4.1 Presentation of demographic findings
4.1.1 Sex of the respondents
4.1.2 Age of the respondents
4.1.3 Marital status of respondents
4.1.4 Level of education of respondents
4.1.5 Agribusiness groupings
4.2 Findings by the objectives
4.2.1 Youth participation in the existing agribusiness while sharing in the profit margins
4.2.2 Private sector actors engaging youths in agribusiness ventures
4.3. Perceptions private sector actors have towards engaging youths at different levels of value chains
4.3.1 Perceptions that youth have towards engaging at different levels of agribusinesses
4.3.2 Perceptions private sector actors have towards engaging youths
4.4 Barriers that hinder youth from meaningful engagement in existing agribusiness
4.5 Opportunities that exist but are untapped by the youth in the agribusiness
4.6 Role of agribusiness private sector actors in engaging more youth in their agribusiness
4.7. Discussion of the findings
4.7.1 Implications from methodology and data availability
4.7.2 Implications of findings for theory / policy / practice
4.8. Summary of data presentation and analysis
CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.0 Introduction
5.1 Summary of the findings
5.2 Conclusion
5.3 Recommendations
5.4 Summary of Conclusions and recommendations
5.4.1 Suggestions for further research
REFERENCES
DEDICATION
I dedicate my dissertation to the three apples of my eye, my fiancée Sarah Bafumba, my daughter Prunella Jess Kyakuwaire and my mum Namusuubo Jesca Bamwise. You are all the force behind me.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Firstly, I would like to express my sincere and inner gratitude to my fiancée Sarah Bafumba, for the support you gave to me while I started this journey. Your knowledge and guidance and the debates we took to our bedroom were a great foundation for me to better understand the many development perspectives in pursuit of this degree.
I would like to acknowledge Mrs. Mariam Naula and Restless Development Uganda, for believing in me as a force to demonstrate youth leadership in the role of a Skills Development Manager with USAID/ Feed The Future (FTF)-Youth Leadership for Agriculture Activity (YLA) Implemented by Chemonics International. I wouldn’t have done this research if I wasn’t here.
I would like to thank my supervisor Dr. Joab Ezra Agaba (PHD) for the insightful comments and feedback and to my colleague Sandra Chebet for the positive criticism along this journey. I wouldn’t have got it right without all this.
Finally, I would like to thank Mr. Chrispus Muganyizi and the team you worked with for the support you gave to me during data collection and analysis. I will forever be grateful
LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: Distribution of respondents by marital status
Table 2: Distribution of respondents by highest education level
Table 3: Youth engagement by farming type practiced, activities in agribusiness and crop items
Table 4: Engagement of youths in agribusiness by private sector actors
Table 5: Youths perceptions have towards engaging in agriculture
Table 6: Barriers that hinder youths from meaningful engagement in existing agribusiness
Table 7 Opportunities that exist but are untapped by the youth in agribusiness
Table 8: Role of agribusiness private sector actors in engaging more youth in agribusiness
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: Conceptual Framework
Figure 2: A pie chart of sex distribution
Figure 3: A bar graph showing the age groups of respondents
Figure 4: A bar graph showing Agribusiness groups of Youth farmers
LIST OF APPENDICES
Appendix 1. Timetable
Appendix 2. Budget
Appendix 3. Questionnaire
Appendix 4. Key informant interview
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
Abbildung in dieser Leseprobe nicht enthalten
ABSTRACT
This study was conducted to explore the role of agribusiness private sector actors in creating economic opportunities for youth along their respective agribusiness value chains. Uganda’s underutilization of youth labour rate is high standing at 67.9 %. Agriculture remains the biggest opportunity for creation of massive economic opportunities for youth. A cross sectional research design was adopted. The study area was eastern Uganda in four districts. Using questionnaires and key informant interviews, a total of 220 and 9 respondents were interviewed respectively. Quantitative data analysis mainly consisted of descriptive statistics and content analysis was used for qualitative data. The study revealed that 99.1 % of youth were engaging in agribusiness with 93.5% of youth into primary production of mainly maize, beans and soya as the major crops. youth and agribusiness companies had a positive attitude engaging each other at different levels of agricultural value chain. Lack of access to finance (64%), skills and knowledge (58.4%) and land (46.3%) were the main barriers for youth in agribusinesses. However, (94.1%) of the respondents agreed to untapped economic opportunities still in production. Trainings (64.2%) and enabling access to finance (62.7%) were top roles for agribusinesses to increase profitable youth participation in agriculture. The study recommends: (i) innovative and inclusive financial solutions for all youth in agribusiness; (ii) government and donors need to invest in a sustainable market facilitative approach, enhance early mind-sets change and promote technical market driven skills development for workforce readiness in agribusiness targeting youth both in school and out of school.
CHAPTER 1 GENERAL INTRODUCTION
1.0 Introduction
Youth make the largest proportion of Uganda’s Population approximately over 78% and they contribute higher employed labour force in rural agricultural sector at 57.2% (ILO, 2017). Many young people are faced with several inhibiting factors to profitably engage in agriculture as Gough and Langevang (2016) indicates that the lack of farm land is one of the drivers of rural urban migration in Uganda and thus youth are unable to contribute to the agricultural sector in preference for industrial and service sectors jobs in urban centers. This causes low productivity and a decline in the growth of the agricultural sector and thus requires agribusiness private sector actors to engage more youth directly in their different value chains to improve on their own resilience and positioning themselves as a dependable source of livelihood for the youth across the country. Private sector actors have higher odds to transform the widely spread subsistence agriculture into a commercial nature where the youth can make higher sales out of their outputs and get engaged at higher levels of the value chains while sharing the profit margins.
1.1. Background of the study
The world population is expected to grow by over a third, or 2.3 billion people by 2050 and the projections show that feeding a world population of 9.1 billion people in 2050 would require raising overall food production by 70% between 2005/07 and 2050, this also means that production in the developing countries would need to almost double (FAO, 2009). This calls for adoption of sustainable intensification, an agricultural approach that uses the best science and technology matched to the unique conditions found in large production operations and small family farms around the world (TNC, 2018).
Uganda is predominantly an agrarian economy whereby the household-based enterprises are predominantly in agriculture (64%) and this sector employed nearly 64 percent of the working population that mainly engages in subsistence agriculture by the time of national census in 2014 (UBOS, 2016). Agriculture, although the smallest contributor to gross domestic product (GDP) continues to absorb the largest portion of Uganda’s young workers (57.2 percent) aged 15-29 by 2015 (Uganda Bureau of Statistics, 2016) (Jimrex, et al., 2014).
Given that insight on youth participation in Uganda’s agriculture sector, it reveals the significance of agribusiness private sector actors in creating economic opportunities for young people in agricultural related fields in order to increase their incomes and workforce readiness skills. It was therefore imperative to conduct a study that can fully underpin the role of agribusiness private sector actors in creating economic opportunities for youth in agriculture in eastern Uganda.
1.2. Statement of the problem
Uganda has the world’s second youngest population, it is unfortunate that her under-utilization of youth labour rate is high standing at 67.9 % in 2015, up from 62.7 % in 2013 (ILO, 2017). Uganda’s job gap is growing, and each year 400,000 youth enter the labour market and compete for only 80,000 formal jobs (FTF, 2016). And this is preceded by high youth unemployment rate (broad definition) that increased to 18.6 % in 2015 from 13.3% in 2013 (ILO, 2017). Many youths especially in the rural areas that are engaging in agricultural activities remain outside of the agribusiness market systems available at their disposal. Most of them are practicing subsistence agriculture that makes meager returns to their livelihood and economic status. The need for active gainful youth participation in the agribusiness development in Uganda is undeniable, it creates employment opportunities for youth in agriculture both on-farm and non-farm or off the farm enterprises (Brooks, 2013). In addition to stimulating economic growth, an agribusiness development path can contribute substantially to poverty reduction and improved social outcomes, forming part of a socially inclusive development strategy (Alemayehu, 2014) and achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Unfortunately, there was inadequate information on how private sector actors could play a critical role in creating economic opportunities for youth in agriculture. It was therefore against this background the researcher undertook to understand how agribusiness private sector actors are tapping into the potential of active youth engagement in their agribusinesses and how this can transform Uganda’s economy and improve people’s wellbeing. It was imperative to conduct this study to explore new strategies, opportunities and innovations that could facilitate the economically impoverished youth to tap into the gainful economic opportunities within the value chains of the existing private sector players in the agricultural business but also inform strategic development interventions in the agricultural sector by both Government and development partners.
1.3. Objectives of the research
1. This study explored the role of agribusiness private sector actors in creating gainful economic opportunities for youth along their value chains.
1.3.1. Specific objective
1. To establish how youth are gainfully participating in the existing agribusiness along the entire value chains.
2. To explore the different perceptions that the agribusiness private sector actors have towards engaging youth at different levels of their value chains.
3. To understand the key barriers to meaningful youth participation in existing agribusinesses
4. To explore opportunities that exist but are untapped by the youth in agribusiness.
5. To establish what agribusiness private sector actors can do to gainfully engage more youth in their agribusinesses
1.4. Research questions
This study sought answers to the following research questions.
1. How can youth participate in the existing agribusiness while sharing in profit margins?
2. What perceptions do agribusiness private sector actors have towards engaging youth at different levels of their value chains?
3. What barriers hinder youth to meaningfully engage in existing agribusiness?
4. What opportunities exist but are untapped by the youth in agribusiness?
5. What can the agribusiness private sectors and other actors do to empower more youth in their business?
1.5 Significance of the study
This study provided a complete new dimension and approach to the field of international and local development initiatives geared at creating economic opportunities for youth in agriculture. The study provided key insights into the adoption of a sustainable and cost-effective model which has been tested by USAID/Feed The Future Youth Leadership for Agriculture Activity which uses a market facilitative approach to youth participation in agribusiness direct partnerships with agribusiness private sector actors.
For a country like Uganda which is grappling with a youth bulge and significantly high levels of youth unemployment. This study informs government and development partners on the nature and approach of interventions within the agriculture sector in order to put youth squarely in agribusiness this is what will hugely contribute to increased incomes for youth and ultimately sets ground for national economic transformation.
1.6 Summary of introduction
This chapter introduces the study topic and the objective of the study to under pin the role of the agribusiness private sector actors in creating economic opportunities for youth in agriculture. Five research questions were undertaken during in order to achieve the objective of the study. Agriculture remains the biggest mainstay of many Ugandans, however rural youth are practicing substance farming and thus not sharing in the profit margins of agribusiness. There was limited information on what works in terms of creating gainful economic opportunities for youth in agriculture related fields in Uganda. This study focused on a market facilitative model already adopted by USAID/FTF-YLA to explore the role of agribusiness private sector actors in creating economic opportunities for youth in agribusiness.
CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW
2.0 Introduction
This chapter presents an overview of the theory that guided the study. It examines the key concepts, theories by different authors. The literature review is presented in relation to empirical studies and the conceptual framework presented in this chapter but drawing perspectives from different schools of thought that guided the study.
2.1 Definitions of the key concepts
In conducting the study, the key definitions were drawn from the topic “the role of agribusiness private sector actors in creating economic opportunities for youth in agriculture”. The researcher made clarity on what the interpretation and meaning of agribusiness private sectors actors and agricultural economic opportunities as explained below;
2.1.1 Agribusiness private sector actors.
The study meant specifically for-profit companies which are profitably dealing in any agricultural production like dealing in buying and processing or maize, sunflower among others and or offering an agricultural service like extension services, spray services, ploughing services or agricultural financing like the case of saccos and other financial institutions among others. Agribusiness in general focuses on any business in agricultural production. This entails inputs and output dealership, primary production value addition and marketing. Agribusiness private sector companies always have a supply chain for their products in which they engage masses in production.
2.1.2 Agricultural economic opportunities.
The study particularly focused on economic opportunities as any activity or business associated to agriculture along the agricultural value chain. This involves any dealership either at inputs level like selling seeds and chemicals for agricultural use an example can be an inputs shop, Or an participating in agricultural production where one grows crops and sells them to the off takers, other opportunities looked at include offering services like lobour or spray or extensions services to peers or other farmers , trading in in produce or adding value by processing among others are some of the agricultural economic opportunities along an agricultural value chain from “Seed” to “Fork” that the study focused on in this study.
2.1.3 Agricultural market systems
The agricultural market system regarding this study should be interpreted as all channels and processes including production, aggregation, transportation, storage, processing, packaging grading and distribution of products, and the actors performing these functions through which agricultural goods and services reach the final consumers. It broadly looks at the environment comprising of necessary functions and actors for the smooth performance of any business along the agricultural value chain in order to make such an engagement profitable in any market place.
2.2 Theories used
The study considered a comparison of two theories and approaches being used in interventions geared towards promoting economic activity in agriculture for masses in Uganda.
2.2.1 Direct delivery
Under this theory and practice in development interventions, it involves distribution of tangible products or services to the people by another entity like government and donor agencies, this is what the study refers to as giving “handouts” to people in order to engage them in agricultural activity. Uganda government and development partners have invested a lot of resources in agriculture through different interventions and programmes like the Presidential Initiative against Poverty and Hunger, the National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS) and of recent the youth Livelihood Fund and Operation Wealth Creation (OWC). These interventions by government were geared towards boosting the agricultural sector and homestead incomes across the rural communities in Uganda. Government efforts have over decades been complemented by numerous interventions by non-government organizations which are funded by donor agencies to improve the livelihoods of the people in different parts of Uganda. While there have been a handful of successes, it’s largely unfortunate that there has been insignificant progress with most of the interventions failing because of the approach of giving handouts to farmers inform of inputs such as seed and direct funding to groups with the assumption that they will invest the money in agriculture production. This approach instead has broken preexisting agricultural market systems for inputs and output linkages and created a dependency syndrome among the masses rendering the approaches inefficient and unsustainable.
2.2.2 Market Facilitative approach
This study focused on this second theory of an indirect approach and intervention termed as a market facilitative approach. This is the kind of intervention in the agricultural market system which purposes to stimulate the agricultural market with short term interventions that add value to the system but remains outside of the market. This approach is very ideal to strengthen linkages and ensure production is demand-driven and responds to market needs. It’s looked at as an approach directed by principles rather than a set of actions. (Duncan, et al., 2011). This intervention works through establishing relationships, adding value, use of incentives and hugely makes a light touch intervention in a quick in and quick out manner. Regarding agribusiness participation, this approach generally focuses on giving handups to private sector actors enabling them to scaleup and incentivising them to gainfully engage masses in their agribusinesses at different levels with economic opportunities.
2.3 Empirical studies
The study was based on previous studies and discussions made by other scholars and this was carefully reviewed against the different study objectives of the topic as presented under empirical studies below.
2.3.1. Youth participation in the existing agribusiness while sharing in the profit margin.
Youths like all other cohorts are key players for any agribusiness. They are still energetic and have the human capital to transform the sector and increase productivity. Youth are therefore positioned to participate at different levels of the agricultural value chains which create an increased performance of the agricultural sector. Youths are encouraged, through various means, to get involved in agriculture like seizing opportunities created by Information Communication Technologies (ICT) and contribute to the future of agriculture (Phiri, 2015). Young people bring energy, vitality, and innovation into the workforce, and when their willingness to contribute is matched with opportunity; they can have a transformative impact on economic growth and social development through agriculture (Brooks, 2013).
Young people who are participating in the agricultural sector have been able to improve their income levels enabling them to invest in their livelihood requirements (IYF, 2014). According to the FTF (2016), young people are engaged through pre-existing or forged groups. While this insistence on group membership can be restrictive, it has overall positive results where youth gain support systems and broader networks through role models and peers. They have more power as a group and can advocate for themselves. They work together to accomplish goals, like saving to buy an ox, and learn how to resolve conflict and lead. Groups also facilitate gains due to economies of scale. They can also aggregate harvests, sell in bulk, command better prices, and buy inputs at lower costs (FTF, 2016).
2.3.2. Agribusiness private sector actors’ perceptions towards engaging youth at different levels of their value chain
Gainful involvement of youth in agriculture is necessary for sustainable agricultural systems but is currently a challenge in many areas because most of the Private sector players think that the youth are half baked because of Uganda’s education system that prepares them to be job seekers and that they lack job skills. Young people can benefit from private sector trainings geared towards improving their efficiency, knowledge and skills agriculture. However, Private sector actors fear that they will not receive a return on investment because the trainees may end up not taking up the business. It is assumed that many youths don’t have resources, expertise and time for agriculture but prefer quick money through ventures like “Boda” riding.
Private sectors perceive young people as money minded and interested in quick returns and thus are unable to wait for at least three or six months for an agricultural cycle to get the money and that the youth themselves perceive any agricultural business as a dirty job and for failures in school. Private sector thus prefers dealing with older cohorts because those ones have a lot of responsibilities and are more likely to stay in the agricultural business for a long time unlike the youth who will move from one job to another.
2.3.3 Barriers that hinder youth to meaningfully engage in existing agribusinesses
The Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN) asserts that the need for development of capacities and opportunities for young people in agriculture has been recognized (FANRPAN, 2012). However, there are still significant challenges and constraints to their effective involvement and these include:
In Africa, parents always encourage their children to study to become doctors, accountants, lawyers; in other-words professionals in white collar jobs. From the onset, farming or a career in agriculture is frowned upon as a poor man's business. In addition, in primary and secondary school, cultivation of food in the school garden has been used as a punishment for every offence committed at school by the children, which has made many young people hate agriculture. This diminishes their morale to study agriculture or pursue it as a career, let alone practice it upon graduation (YouthinFarming.org 2011). Young people's negative attitudes towards agriculture has affected their own participation in agribusiness. Young people perceive agriculture as a profession of intense labour, not profitable and unable to support their livelihood compared to white collar job offers. They think agriculture would not afford them to enjoy the pleasures of life today (Njuki, 2015).
FAO (2009) estimates that women comprise, on average, 43 percent of the agricultural labour force in developing countries. However, only 13 percent of agricultural land holders worldwide are female. If women had equal access to productive resources, they could increase yields on their farms by 20 to 30 percent. In addition, the acquisition of large areas of land by investors, especially in countries with weak governance and insecure land rights, has emerged as a new threat to the livelihoods of rural people and small-scale farmers while speculators are harvesting enormous returns from farmland (Beck, 2016). Since 2008, the term “land grabbing” gained notoriety around the globe. This has left many young people without land to participate in agriculture (McIntyre, et al., 2009).
Land inheritance remains gendered with women often prevented from inheriting land under customary law (Rhiannon, et al., 2015). This leaves women with marginal access to land, often granted by male relatives (Bezu and Holden, 2014; Durand, 2014). Many youths are therefore landless or have no immediate access and control over important productive resources (Lundius and Suttie, 2014). Where credit is available to farmers, land is often used as collateral. Credit is a particular challenge for youth and for women as they often lack collateral due to the reasons discussed above. Youth and women struggle to access capital to invest in production (Vale, n.d).
Where opportunities for capacity development are available for young people, there is often a mismatch between them and the resources for engaging the young people in the agriculture sector. Opportunities in the agricultural value chain are not clearly articulated. Research and implementing institutions are also hierarchical and not necessarily responsive to the demands of the youth (FANRPAN, 2012).
Changes in technology of production and increased differentiation of product quality on the demand side may be creating new indivisible costs in the production of some commodities, and hence may be contributing to factors influencing the evolution of farm size (Brooks, 2013).
Mercy-Corps (2017) perceives that due to limited market information, lack of networks, and constrained mobility, among others, many young people are not aware of the variety of income opportunities that exist along the way from farm to consumers. Mercy-Corps (2017) believes that identifying specific, appropriate entry points for male and female youth along agriculture markets and unlocking these economic opportunities are critical to strengthening the agricultural and food sectors and increasing incomes.
A large proportion of the unemployed youth reside in the rural areas where there are limited or no resources for accessing information on available development opportunities or cutting-edge agriculture. Where the resources are available, affordability becomes a constraint. The type of resource available also determines its accessibility; for example, it would be easier for the rural youth to access newsletters/magazines than to pay for Internet usage (FANRPAN, 2011). Youth are less likely to use appropriate input technologies such as improved seeds, fertilizer, agricultural chemicals among others (Gemma, et al., 2013). Even if farmers believe that use of improved inputs and fertilizer are profitable, they may be unable to purchase them if they lack cash and/or cannot obtain credit; this too is a key barrier (Musa, 2013).
The approaches that focus on production and economic growth alone tend to exclude young people, women and vulnerable groups in income-generating activities. Young women and men tend to be less involved in other value chain levels like market-related activities, resulting in limited possibilities to capture economic benefits. While access to education is widely promoted as a tool for development with school enrollment rising worldwide, there is little inclusion of meaningful agricultural knowledge in curriculum (Rhiannon, et al, 2015). From primary education to vocational training and rural training, there is often a lack of quality knowledge targeted at tomorrow’s farmers. Curriculum lacks a focus on markets and soft skills alongside technical know-how (Pyburn and Woodhill, 2014). So, youth develop neither the interest nor the necessary skills to effectively engage in agricultural activities (Vale, n.d; Bennell, 2007; Pyburn and Woodhill, 2014).
2.3.4. Opportunities that exist but are untapped by the youth in the agribusiness environment.
Between the farm and the final consumer there are many goods and services that are necessary for the product to move through the different stages. There are market gaps that exist that young people can explore which can enable them launch businesses beyond the farm that support agricultural activities around them because not all young people have to work on a farm (Jemimah, 2015). This could be in agro-processing, provision of inputs/services, bulking, cleaning and grading agriculture research, food technology, services like financial, certification, and extension services among others.
ICTs are quickly penetrating rural areas and they are appealing to the rural youth. FAO (2014) further notes that ICTs have a great potential to increase productivity by providing information and linkages to markets for farmers This is further emphasized by Karimi (2017) who presents an opportunity for youth to develop and deploy these relevant ICT applications. ICTs can play a role in countering youth migration to urban areas by enhancing access to market information, production techniques, new technologies and financing opportunities (Marijke, 2013). Youth have a great opportunity to tap into the use of ICTs as tool for input and output linkages and brokering where they can participate on commission basis, self-branding, conduct long distance meetings, sharing information, make money off sales of services, inputs and outputs through brokering to farmers.
Agricultural value chains therefore present many opportunities for youth employment, due to the increased demand for environmentally sound and high-quality production. Youth entrepreneurs can be involved in high value-added post-harvest processing and distribution activities (S4YE, 2015).
2.3.5. How private sector can engage more youths in their businesses
Gemma, et al., (2013) believes that for the youth to be gainfully employed in the agriculture sector, they should be targeted depending on their aspirations and resource accessibility. Such as a category that has access to land but need skills and capital to invest in high-valued agricultural enterprises like coffee as pointed out by Mbowa et al., (2013) and Brooks et al., (2012). Young people need assistance to leave their childhood farms, and set-up new and relatively larger farms. But the operationalization of this option requires careful consultations with all stakeholders; having effective support services and adequate investment in infrastructure.
Private sectors can promote youth groups or associations for the youth to be able to access, agricultural extension and advisory services, financial services and agricultural inputs such as demand driven improved seeds, fertilizers and for ease of marketing their produce. These services are aimed at enhancing agricultural productivity. High productivity is associated with improved farmers’ income which is in attracting and maintaining the youth in agriculture (Gemma, et al., 2013).
Private sector can create strong inputs and output linkages which strengthens their supply chain through youths with well-established markets that sale improved seeds, fertilizer and agricultural chemicals, storage, processing, and produce equipment. Emphasis should be put into understanding where employment opportunities exist along the different nodes of the agricultural value chain.
According to Mercy-Corps (2017) building girls’ knowledge and skills around agriculture, coupled with life skills such as decision-making, nutrition knowledge and financial literacy, can contribute to improved nutrition and food security for households and communities. When girls have access to basic skills, increased decision-making and economic opportunities including engagement in agriculture, they marry later, have fewer children, and are more likely to seek healthcare for their children (Mercy-Corps, 2017).
Young people need improved access to appropriate resources including land, inputs, infrastructure, age- and sex-appropriate financial services, age and sex specific extension services, and ultimately market-driven knowledge and technical skills (Nnadi and Akwiwu, 2008). Integrating technology into this learning and information sharing is often a powerful way to ensure we are engaging young people through youth-friendly mechanisms, rather than traditional, antiquated methods (Mercy-Corps, 2017). Agricultural and vocational training will be critical so as to equip the youth with requisite skills and overall sensitisation on agricultural technologies (Gemma, et al., 2013).
High levels of agricultural taxation need to be reduced and taxation instruments like. It is however obvious that agriculture as a major sector in many African economies, will have to continue to contribute to government revenues (Townsend, 1999).
2.4 Conceptual framework
There is a relationship between the facilitative approach to agribusinesses partnerships and creating gainful economic opportunities for youth in agriculture.
Figure 1: Conceptual Framework
Abbildung in dieser Leseprobe nicht enthalten
Source: Adopted from RutgersWPF (2013) and modified by the researcher (2018)
The figure shows the conceptual frame work illustrating the relationship between the facilitative approach by both government and development partners through agribusiness companies and the creation of on-farm and off farm economic opportunities for youth. The framework shows a series of barriers categorized as Knowledge, risk perception, attitude, social influence and skills about agribusiness which can be addressed by the private sector actors if they are facilitated with a light touch by government or development partners to enable gainful economic opportunities for youth by addressing all inhibiting factors that youth face at the thought of practicing agribusiness. A case study for Eastern Uganda - USAID/FTF-YLA
From the above diagram the study considered agribusiness private sector actors as a key entry point into the agricultural market systems approach to address a set of internal barriers for youth participation in agribusiness. when government and development partners add a light touch to preexisting companies in the agricultural market systems, then they will enable them to operate at scale. Active participation in agribusiness is like a behavior , so for one to practice agribusiness they need to have the right set of knowledge in that value chain , they need to have a very low risk perception about agribusiness which entails the lack of market , fluctuating prices and unpredictable weather patterns , they need to have positive attitudes and the right mindset about agriculture and they need to have a supportive social influence as well as the right practical skills to do so. Agribusiness companies can ably transfer and address all these barriers as they are able to give the masses the kind of information one needs to know about their respective products /production, reduce the risk perception of loss in agribusiness as they will guarantee market change mindsets and offer the right market driven skills. its only when all these barriers are addressed that one will have the intention to invest and practice agribusiness. Private sector actors can also enable access to factors of production like access to inputs on credit and labor-saving technologies like tractor and ploughs which are owned by these companies. With all this all barriers to participation in agribusiness are addressed and one is in position to gainfully participate in agribusiness.
2.5 Summary of the literature review.
In summary this chapter presents important multidimensional contexts about the approach in development interventions, the importance of engaging youth in agribusiness and the need to adopt a cost-effective light touch intervention for a market facilitative approach in engaging youth but most importantly underpins the role of the private sector in addressing the barriers that hinder the participation of youth in agribusiness. The chapter presented scholarly arguments about the performance of the agricultural sector globally and the need for new approaches and innovation that will not only guarantee food security for the growing world population but most importantly the opportunity there is in creating economic opportunities for young people in Uganda if all the barriers are addressed as argued by the different scholars but using a cost effective and sustainable tested model of a market facilitative approach that puts youth in partnership with agribusiness companies to take up opportunities along their respective value chains.
CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.0. Introduction
This chapter presents and discusses the research strategy and shows the design, study area and sampling size, sampling technique, data analysis including the methods and techniques used in answering research questions.
3.1. Research Design.
This study adopted a cross sectional research design as the logical structure of inquiry. The selection of this research design was premised on the fact that the research questions required the researcher to describe the role of agribusiness private sector actors in creating gainful economic opportunities for youth along their value chains. The research design ensured that evidence collected provided answers to the research questions unambiguously. This was done by acquiring reliable evidence; and specification of the type of evidence that was required to answer the research questions. On the other hand, the cross-sectional study design being among the common and rather well-known research designs, where the entire population is either considered or a subset, to provide information collected as row data to answer the research questions of interest, (Olsen & George, 2004); further informed the choice of design. The research questions and objectives were addressed through different designs as follows;
A descriptive study technique was employed using questionnaires and Key Informant interviews for youth and representatives of private sector actors respectively for questions; 1, 2 and 3. This provided a clear picture about youth engagement in agribusiness, the attitudinal relationship between the youths and agribusiness engagements and the prevailing barriers hindering youths from gainful agricultural participation. From the analysis and evaluation of the raw data from the responses extracted from the participants, explanations and conclusions were drafted hence portraying accurate profiles for the first three research questions.
An exploratory study design was directed towards research questions four and five using both questionnaires and key informant interviews for youth and the private sector actors. This design enabled the research to find new insights and more clarity on the existing opportunities that are not tapped by the youths in agriculture; and the actual roles private sector actors can play to engage more youth in agribusiness.
3.2. Sampling issues
The research was conducted in eastern Uganda focusing on the districts of Tororo, Mbale, Soroti and Kapchorwa. The choice of these four districts was informed by USAID/FTF Youth Leadership for Agriculture Activity (YLA) is piloting a market facilitative intervention with select agribusiness companies in each of these districts as part of their interventions in eastern Uganda which included Agrinet Ltd, Sebei Farmers SACCO, Sunshine Agro Limited, Byeffe Foods company among others. YLA is leveraging resources through a private sector partnership arrangement focused on creating economic opportunities for youth in agriculture related fields along respective value chains.
3.2.1 Study population
The primary study population were female and male youth aged 15- 35 in both rural and urban or semi urban areas where the private sector actors were located and private sector actors who were working with these youth. They were all based in urban and semi urban areas across the four districts. Though the study revealed that most of the youth were in rural areas where they did their agricultural work.
3.2.2 Sample selection and size
The study used a cluster sampling at first stage to group the participants into private sector players and youths and later applied simple random sampling technique to pick out the actual participants. The Study sample size was 220 youths of ages 15-35 in both rural and urban or semi urban in the four districts and six (6) private sector companies in agriculture.
The sample size of youths was estimated using Cochran’s sample size formula,
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Where: n = sample size.
z = linked to 95% confidential interval (1.96).
p = probability of private sector actors creating economic opportunities for the youth in agriculture (0.8).
q = probability of private sector actors not creating economic opportunities for the youth in agriculture (0.2).
d = standard error 5% (0.05).
3.3. Data collection techniques
This study undertook a mixed methods approach to data collection involving both quantitative and qualitative approaches. The qualitative and quantitative data collection tools were used, these were comprised of structured questionnaires and interview guides; using key informant interviews for private sector actors and farmer support agents, and structured questionnaire interviews for youths. These were validated through pretesting by the research assistants that were hired to support in the data collection process.
3.4. Data analysis techniques
After data collection, the data was entered and analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Scientists (SPSS) version 16. This mainly applied to the quantitative data. On the other hand, Qualitative data was examined and classified into key areas and patterns. This determined the relationship and generation of explanations that are resented here in chapter four.
3.4.1. Quantitative data processing and analysis
The questionnaires which were administered to respondents were scrutinised for consistency and accuracy. After data collection, questionnaires were edited, cleaned and assigned identification numbers. Coding was done before data entry and analysis (Mugenda and Mugenda, 1999). The statistical package for social scientists (SPSS) version 16; was used to analyse data by tabulating frequencies; descriptive statistics.
3.4.2. Qualitative data processing and analysis
Qualitative data was examined and classified into key aspects. This determined the relationship and generation of explanations in the study. Content analysis was used to draw conclusions by looking at narrative statements obtained from Key informant interviews.
3.4.3 Measurement of variables
Both nominal variables and ordinal scales of measurement were used. The nominal scale was used to capture demographic characteristics of the respondents (Mugenda and Mugenda, 1999). On the other hand, the ordinal scale was used to rank and categorise elements measured. To represent variation in responses; a three-point Likert scale was used; where 1= Agree; 2= Disagree; 3= Do not know.
3.5. Data presentation
Quantitative data analysis mainly consisted of descriptive statistics (numbers and percentages) and Qualitative data was presented inform of quotes to represent more of views and perceptions from the interviewed respondents.
3.6. Ethical consideration
The researcher communicated and presented the true perception and views of respondents. Participant’s consent was sought, and their participation was kept discreet and only for academic purposes. The research report was written with confidentiality, without disclosing names and titles of respondents.
3.7. Limitations of the study
Limited access to organized youth respondents and private sector actors for the interviews who could contribute relevant information to the study. This was lessened through use of USAID/ FTF-YLA information about existing private sector actors in the study area and prior mobilization with of respondents through their youth leaders.
Poor interpretation of the questions into the local languages by the interviewer and interviewee due to language barrier. This was minimized through intensive training of the research assistants, use of local youth agents /leaders attached to agribusiness as part of the data collection team and pretest of the data collection tools before the actual data collection .
3.8. Summary of the methodology
This chapter has presented the methodology that the researcher undertook during this study. The researcher adopted a correctional research design as the logical structure of inquiry for the sample size of 6 agribusiness companies and 220 youth who are already grouped under respective agribusiness private sector companies. The study used both key informant interviews and questioners across the segments of the respondents. Data analysis was done using the Statistical Package for Social Scientists (SPSS) version 16 to provide the discussions and findings discussed in the next chapter.
CHAPTER 4
DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS
4.0 Introduction
This chapter presents the study findings on the role of agribusiness private sector actors in creating economic opportunities for the youth in agriculture with focus on Mbale, Tororo, Soroti, and Kapchorwa districts which are found in Eastern Uganda. This chapter consists of demographic characteristics of respondents, descriptive statistic and coloration between the private sector and the market facilitative approach in creating economic opportunities for youth in agriculture related fields. The chapter further summaries the findings and underpins new strategies, opportunities and innovations that can facilitate the economically indigent youth to tap into the gainful economic opportunities within the existing private sector players in the agricultural business along their respective value chains.
4.1 Presentation of demographic findings
This study considered five variables to describe the demographic characteristics of the respondents. These were sex, age, marital status, education level and the nature of agribusiness grouping that the respondents belonged to. This was aimed at understanding the correlation between participation in agribusiness against each respective variable so as to inform tailor made interventions in agriculture which are appropriate for the different cohorts of youth respectively.
4.1.1 Sex of the respondents
In the figure 4.1 below, male respondents dominated the study with a portion of 56% (124) compared to their counterparts who made up 44% (96). And they did all report that they participate in agribusiness
Figure 2: A pie chart of sex distribution
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Source: Field Research (Primary data, 2018)
4.1.2 Age of the respondents
The age range was 15 – 35 years as the research was focusing on understanding the dynamics involved in increasing gainful youth participation in agribusiness.
Figure 3 : A bar graph showing the age groups of respondents
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Source: Field Research (Primary data, 2018)
The researcher looked at the age bracket of 15-35 years as primary respondents given the fact that some young people who are of secondary school going age between 15 and 19 are involved in agribusiness and were not attending any formal or non-formal education at the time of the study.
4.1.3 Marital status of respondents
Table 1 : Distribution of respondents by marital status
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Source: Field Research (Primary data, 2018)
Table 4.1 above shows that married youths recorded a high number of respondents with 60.5% (133) followed by those ones who have never married, and the least number was made up of those who lost their spouses at 7%.
4.1.4 Level of education of respondents
As illustrated by Table 4.2 below, rural youth are generally better educated with the majority having attended secondary and tertiary levels that is 62.4% altogether as compared to those ones below secondary level of education at 33% who indicated primary as their highest level of education.
Table 2: Distribution of respondents by highest education level
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Source: Field Research (Primary data, 2018)
4.1.5 Agribusiness groupings
The youths were asked to which agribusiness groups they belong to. The Figure 4.3 below clearly demonstrates that 69.5% of the respondents reported to have belonged to farmer groups, then 15.5% for Area Cooperative Enterprise (ACEs), 6.8% SACCOs and lastly 0.5 % for others (VSLA). Only 7.7% did not have any group they belonged to.
Figure 4 : A bar graph showing Agribusiness groups of Youth farmers
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Source: Field Research (Primary data, 2018)
4.2 Findings by the objectives
In order to meet the objectives of the study, the following research findings were collected foe each objective through questionnaires and key informant interviews;
4.2.1 Youth participation in the existing agribusiness while sharing in the profit margins
This objective focused on exploring what youths are mainly doing in agribusiness venture and how they do it and the crops they grow. This objective further stretched to find out, to what extent private sector actors are engaging youths in their agribusiness value chains. One key assumption was that there are various agribusinesses around young people in their communities and it was likely that while these businesses are going on, the youth may not be taking the opportunity to tap into the value chain or that the private sector actors were not doing enough to tap into the energy of youth and engage them in their business.
From the Table 4.2 below, 99.1 % of the respondents were engaging in agribusiness with 87.6% carrying out crop production, 30.9% for poultry and the rest animal production. The high number of youth farmers doing crop production is supported by a bigger number of respondents (93.5%) who said they are farmers/producers compared to other agribusiness occupations like inputs dealing, casual labourers, traders/brokers among others that had a relatively low uptake. These results are further supported by the Key informants who specified production as the main primary activity that youth farmers are benefiting from in agribusiness ventures.
Table 3: Youth engagement by farming type practiced, activities in agribusiness and crop items
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Source: Field Research (Primary data, 2018)
4.2.2 Private sector actors engaging youths in agribusiness ventures
The youths were also asked if private sector actors engage them in agribusiness ventures and 92.3% of the respondents reported that private sector actors are engaging them and other youths along different agribusiness value chains. This means that most of the youth farmers targeted in the research were working with different private sector actors available to them in their communities.
The Table 4.3 below further depicts that private sector actors mainly engage youths through providing different trainings to them as accounted by 83.9% of the respondents. It is pursued mainly by providing agricultural inputs and market for their produce as informed by 66.8% and 59.8% of the respondents respectively.
Table 4: Engagement of youths in agribusiness by private sector actors
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Source: Field Research (Primary data, 2018)
4.3. Perceptions private sector actors have towards engaging youths at different levels of value chains
This objective aimed at capturing the perceptions of both private sector actors and youth about engaging each other in agribusiness, a relationship that would be mutually gainful in terms of economic benefit. It was important to know what perceptions youth have in relation to engaging with the private sector actors and equally to understand what perceptions that the private sector actors have about engaging youth in their agribusinesses. The researcher wanted to understand what the private sector actor thinks about engaging youths at different levels of their respective value chains. Understanding the different perceptions would help us know if there were any attitudinal barriers that are hindering a health and gainful relationship among youth and agribusinesses.
4.3.1 Perceptions that youth have towards engaging at different levels of agribusinesses.
In order to get a wide perspective on youth perceptions, the research focused agribusiness but equally centered around youth engagement with the actors in the agribusiness sector.
Table 5 below illustrates how the youths agreed, disagreed or were not aware of the different statements when the study established their opinions about engaging in or with agribusinesses.
Table 5: Youths perceptions have towards engaging in agriculture
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Source: Field Research (Primary data, 2018)
4.3.2 Perceptions private sector actors have towards engaging youths
Private sector actors had positive perception towards youth’s participation in their respective agribusiness value chains. They believe that youths can get involved in the actual production at farm level where they grow crops that the companies provide for ready market. This was highlighted as the biggest opportunity for the youth to participate in agribusiness and youth are not restricted to growing one particular crop but can establish relationships with multiple agribusiness companies depending on their capacity to grow different crops and provided, they have guaranteed ready market through private sector actors.
4.4 Barriers that hinder youth from meaningful engagement in existing agribusiness
Just like any other venture, agribusiness is associated with constraints that limit meaningful engagement of youths along the agricultural value chains. Youths were tasked to choose utmost three of the barriers that are hindering them. As shown in the Table 6, five barriers emerged to be prominent due to close figures as described. The top one was lack of access to finance as reported by 64% of the respondents.
Table 6: Barriers that hinder youths from meaningful engagement in existing agribusiness
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Source: Field Research (Primary data, 2018)
4.5 Opportunities that exist but are untapped by the youth in the agribusiness
The study was also interested in investigating different opportunities that exist in agribusiness but are not exploited by the youths. The majority of the respondents (94.1%) agreed that there are still untapped economic opportunities in the industry of agribusiness. 82.6% of them find excess opportunity in carrying out farming/production. Other minor opportunities are inputs dealing, transportation services and processing as detailed in the table below.
Table 7 Opportunities that exist but are untapped by the youth in agribusiness
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Source: Field Research (Primary data, 2018)
4.6 Role of agribusiness private sector actors in engaging more youth in their agribusiness
This objective discovered various strategies private sector actors can use to engage more youths in agribusiness. Youths were also asked what private sector actors can do to engage more youth in agribusiness. The respondents were requested to decide on main four roles the actors can play, and Table 4.6 below describes the results.
Table 8 : Role of agribusiness private sector actors in engaging more youth in agribusiness
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Source: Field Research (Primary data, 2018)
4.7. Discussion of the findings
The study extracted qualitative and quantitative information and insights about the role that private sector actors can play in engaging youth in agribusiness. The research was informed by the USAID/Feed the future Youth leadership for Agriculture Activity with the existing private sector actors who were already working with youth in eastern Uganda. The youth and the private sector actors already value the relationship for economic growth and party explains why 99% of all respondents were engaged in agribusiness, it was however important that for such a study area the researcher focused on youth who already had an idea and could give relevant insights on the role of agribusiness private sector actors in engaging youth in agribusiness.
The findings on agribusiness participation by sex contravene with Gemma, et al., (2013) results that assert that male youths are less involved in agriculture than female youths. In trying to understand this dividend the study found out that males were better positioned in terms of making enterprise decisions and accessing the land for production as opposed to their counterparts the female youth in their respective communities. The study established that while there were different cultural and social practices in the different areas that our respondents were selected from particularly Teso region, Bugisu region and Sebei regions with others from Tororo which was a big mix of respondents and cultures, most of the social practices in the rural communities excluded women and most especially young girls from accessing land for their own production or participation in available opportunities for agribusiness. The respondents further affirmed that there were cultural and social barriers affecting the inclusion and engagement of young women in agribusiness. The land ownership and tenure system favor most men and thus the men are more likely to be in control of any given land. Social factors and practices by the parents dictate a masculinity tendency for control over land, through this research the study also found out that there are more married youth than unmarried and detailed in the sub section for marital status and level of education. The study established that once the young men took a wife or were living as married couples, they had access to family land which was given either by their parents or relatives; this unfortunately is not the case for the young women. Interestingly however, the study revealed that behind every married man there was a young woman who was hugely involved in this agribusiness and in some cases more than the male counterparts but was unfortunately not the face of the agribusiness. It’s therefore true to assert that while young women are generally involved in agriculture, their male counterparts are the face of the businesses and they make most decisions pertaining their involvement in Agribusiness. When private sector actors go out in the rural communities to mobilize farmers for contract farming, the study established that it’s men who are mostly the owners of the land who register for this kind of engagement, young women feel they do not have decision making rights over the land for production and such a decision is arrived at by men or after their consent in the case of married couples, the reverse may not necessarily be true. It was also unlikely for a young unmarried woman who was still staying with their parents to make any decisions of engaging in any contract farming for any private sector actor unless such a decision was arrived at by the parents and they were mostly offering labour in the gardens. Young women in all these regions continue to be excluded from land ownership and have little or no say and access to the land for their own business. Many young women are therefore involved in agriculture, but they continue to work with their parents and for their husbands on the same plots of land where they mainly grow food crops for home consumption and in cases where they are into agribusiness, their male counter parts are the face of the gardens and thus make the business decisions. The study also revealed that even when young women offered labour on agribusiness ventures for their families, they did not necessarily share in the proceedings of that garden but offered such support as family members yet on the other hand their male counterparts who were given plots of land and utilized them for agribusiness, enjoyed the proceedings of their agribusiness engagements. This corresponds to Rhiannon, et al., (2015) who asserts that land inheritance remains gendered with women often prevented from inheriting land under customary laws.
From the study, the respondents, the mean age was 25.21 years. As showed in Figure 4.1. Most respondents as clearly shown by 34% fell in age group of 20-24 years a little more than those ones in age group of 25-29 years made up of 33%, 30 – 35 were 20% and 15 – 19 were 13%. The study defined youth engaged in agribusiness as males and females who were between the age brackets of 15 and 35 years producing a product or service for the available market. This was also informed by the FTF-YLA intervention which focuses on youth between 10 and 35 years. The FTF-YLA project also however specifically targets school going males and females of 10 to 14 through private sector partnership focusing on in school intervention but also recognizes that the older cohort of 15 to 24 require work force readiness skills and should be targeted irrespective of whether they are in school or out of school. This is looked at as an age appropriate response as these youths are thought to be transitioning from formal education to the job market and thus require the market driven technical skills to be relevant outside school. This study confirms this theory as the study revealed that 13% of the youth in the cohort of 15-19 years who would be thought of as school going youth were involved in agribusiness and 34% who are between the age brackets of 20-24 constituted the biggest number of youths involved in the agribusiness sector and were already out of school. The study focused on out of school youth and did not conduct the research among schools or students. This age distribution in agricultural participation reveals that the more energetic and flexible youths are entering the agricultural business, this however contradicts with the general perception that young people believe that agriculture is for old people and are not capable of solving their own problems including engaging in agriculture as a solution to poverty and a source of income for them.
The study revealed that married youths were more involved in agribusiness than unmarried youth, this is attributed to agriculture being a main economic activity and source of livelihood in rural communities. The results indicate that many young people are living either as married or as couples as revealed by over 75% who responded as either currently living as married people or have ever lived as a couple before but lost a spouse or divorced. It is therefore true to assert that most married youth living in rural communities are engaged in agribusiness as this is looked at as the main source of income or food to fend for their families. In trying to understand the life of a young person who is 20 years and above and out of school, our research indicates that only 25 percent of these are living single or still under the roofs of their parents. The study further indicates that 13% respondents were between the age brackets of 15 and 19, this implies that only 12% youth who are between 20 years and 30 years old have never lived with a spouse and are engaged in agribusiness. This further shows that many young people in this cohort have turned to agriculture as a means to livelihoods. Further to note, the study reveals that many youths between the age brackets of 20-29 are out of school and in most cases, while some have finished their secondary education others have dropped out of school for various reasons.
In relation to education level, the study revealed that while many youths attended secondary education, they were unable to proceed to either tertiary or university education as indicated by only 21.4% who made it beyond secondary education. It is therefore worth noting that such youth with only a Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education (UACE) or lower have limited options in advancing their career goals and agriculture remains their biggest opportunity to exploit to earn a living. The jobs available to this cohort are very limited and it is the reason there is an increased number of youths engaging in agriculture as their economic activity to meet their needs as indicated by research findings which confirm that 67 % (20-24: 34% and 25-30: 33%) of the youth are engaged in agribusiness.
Given the fact that agriculture tends to employ low educated youths with an average of five years of schooling as indicated by Gemma, et al., (2013), this study reveals different results with youths having an average of at least seven years of attending school. However, the results positively correlate with Gemma, et al., (2013) assertion that there is limited use of technology in agriculture since this may need highly educated personnel and on average youths attended secondary level of education which is still basic in terms of the job markets in Uganda and the technical capacity of such a UACE graduate.
The study revealed that most youths are organized in formal groups through which they operate in order to engage in agribusiness activities. This finding clearly illustrates that organized youth in groups are more likely to meaningfully engage with private sector actor. Belonging to a group is a basic requirement and was looked at as the smallest basic unit and requirement for primary administration. Private sector players and actors offer agricultural related services and support including basic agronomic trainings through groups. The groups have their own leadership set up and this supports quick mobilization and flow of information from their leaders to all members, groups act as the first collecting center and are the foundations of bulk marketing where youth can always negotiate good prices for their produce. For instance, one of the key informants supported this argument with statement presented that; “ If they produce their crops together, they can bulk together, market together, share together and add more stock”
For the crop types grown, the analysis reveals that the main crop grown and sold is maize as reported by 67.4% of the respondents engaging in agribusiness. This is followed by beans and soya as reported by 59.2% and 31.2 % respectively. Other minor crops grown are sunflowers, chili, pumpkins, potatoes, coffee to mention but a few. The above results imply that most youth farmers do on-farm activities (production) as opposed to other levels of agricultural value chains; the research reveals that perennial crops such as coffee are not attractive to youth given the long term for maturity. Youths are rather into mostly three months crops that give them returns just after ninety days.
In interaction with one of the key informants about the ways youth can participate in agribusiness; this is what he had to say; “in Production level, youths can earn money by growing high value crops like ginger, pumpkin, Soya. Ginger production in one acre can give a minimum of 30 million. The company sells seeds at 10,000 a Kilogram but it could have been 4000. An acre takes 600kgs of ginger. This can bring a bigger profit margin”.
(Source: Primary data; Interview held on Friday, September 28, 2018).
Based on the results from the youths (respondents) and in-depth insights from the key informant (Agribusiness private sector), the study noted that the youths are still highly involved in agricultural production. For high returns at production level, youths are being emphasized to grow high valued crops that can earn them more profits hence sharing lucratively in the profit margin of the private sectors.
Civil Society organizations are engaging more youth in agriculture than the agribusiness private sector actors where 28% of the respondents indicate their engagement with them in agriculture. There are many NGOs and other Community based organizations which are running income generating activities for youth in different communities this perhaps is what is contributing to the high number of CSO engagement of youth in agriculture. Financial institutions (4.9%) are reported as the least engaging private sector partners for youth in agribusiness, this relates to the key barriers that are discussed under barriers that youth face in agribusiness as access to financial services that support. However, some private sectors have encouraged the youth to develop a relationship with the financial institutions as reported by the private sector through the in-depth interview held on Saturday 29th of September 2018 that “ we encourage them to save money with SACCO and their benefits come from the fixed interests and ordinary of 2% after 3 months. He added that, they also get shares (dividends) at the end of the year”. When youth are unable to access financial services, they are unlikely to use improved seeds and adopt technologies that would improve on their agricultural productivity as in many cases improved seeds have a high price tag which many farmers always find expensive. This is worse if they have not been a part of any financial savings arrangement in their communities. The research findings confirm further the argument that private sector actors are likely to cultivate a mutually economic viable relationship with their farmers for purposes of transacting exchange of services or products. Among the private sector actors that the study interviewed are social enterprises such as Bamasaba Farmers Federation (BAFE), Byeffe Foods limited Sebei Farmers SACCO among others and are mainly engaging youths through trainings and enabling access to seeds as reported by 88.9 and 66.8% respectively from this study. Before YLA partnered with Sebei Farmers Savings and Credit Cooperative (SACCO) which is not directly in agriculture but saw a great opportunity to participate in agribusiness because the SACCO was struggling in ensuring that their members make savings and take loans, so the Sacco went into a memorandum of understanding with a sunflower processing company AK oils which buys and crushes sunflower to make cooking oil. The SACCO positioned itself as an agent for this company in the Sebei region in Kapchorwa district. The arrangement was that the Sacco engages its members in producing sunflower and they would buy from the members then off take to AK-oils. USAID/FTF -YLA made a partnership with this SACCO to materialize this arrangement, through this partnership with YLA, Sebei farmers SACCO purposed to create economic opportunities for 1500 youth through Sunflower and Soya beans production while linking the youth to the SACCO. Below is a case study of Sebei farmers SACCO as narrated by a key informant interview.
Sebei Farmers SACCO and YLA partnered in 2017 in to increase agricultural economic opportunities of 1500 youth through Sunflower and soya beans production while linking them to Sebei farmers SACCO, we have been able to so far engage 1460 youth, most of whom 1,320 are growing sunflower and are selling the produce to Sebei farmers SACCO which we deliver to Mukwano group of companies and Nile agro as our major off takers.
The project started with recruitment of 20 agents and later the farmers in about 75 groups that were managed by these agents. Later the mobilized farmers were trained and provided with sunflower seeds which some bought cash and others took in full or partial credit through the SACCO arrangement as we deal in loans and savings as our core business. The very farmers who grew sunflower are selling back the grains through us to Mukwano and Nile agro. Because of this engagement where YLA facilitated us to reach out to the youth, Sebei farmers SACCO has had great improvement in its business and clear growth in growth indicators; Our membership grew from a mere 322 members in 2017 to now 2460 members. The current membership is also dominated by youth forming 84% of its membership, 100% staff, 58% of board members and as such influence the running and decisions of the SACCO which provides a very good platform for the youth participate and benefit. The SACCOs savings stands at 311,367,190 UGX as at September 2018 from the 75,094,400 UGX as at 31st December 2017. Our loan book which forms our main assets changed from 72,626,749/= as at 31st December 2017 to currently at 283,000,000 as at 25th September 2018.
(Source: Primary data; Interview held on Friday, September 28, 2018).
In relation to the objective on perceptions, most youths had positive attitude towards participating in agribusiness. That is, of the respondents that reacted to statements, 93.2% like agriculture and don’t think it is for old people. Shockingly, they also don’t prefer quick money contrary to popular opinion that youth are interested in quick money and get rich quickly schemes, this however is equally relative as the study revealed that most of the youth are engaged in seasonal crops and were least involved in crops like coffee that would take them a year to get the first harvest. The perception responses that the study gathered and analyzed, indicate to us that while young people have over time been labeled as interested in quick money, these particular youths working with private sector actors think otherwise and are taking leadership in agriculture as young people. They believe they have a key role to play in the sector and understand that to gain from agriculture they will have to wait for seasons and harvesting time in order to sell their produce; 92.3% think agriculture as a profitable venture; 93.6% believe that if given the right skills and knowledge, they can practically put them into practice. This is crucial in highlighting the need for the right skills, if this is tied in to the findings that over 33% of the participants in the research were unable to continue to secondary education. Then continuous skilling and knowledge transfer would be paramount for young people to participate meaningfully in agriculture, as this would guarantee that even by the time anyone drops out of school of finished primary education, they have basic skills and knowledge to gainfully participate in the sector; 92.7% have a will to grow crops for companies if they guarantee market and price for the crops. The Study revealed that when young people sign production contracts that guarantee the price and market for their produce, they feel secure and confident in participating in the respective value chains as some have had instances of high yields in certain seasons but with limited or no access to market. When agribusiness actors sign production contracts with groups where youth are, the youth would be much willing to produce knowing that there is a ready market for their produce; 85.0% have access to resources like land that would support agricultural production and have time for agriculture, contrary to many opinions that youth don’t have access to land. If young people see a viable business venture, they are willing to go out of their way and hire land to do the business; 73.2% of youths confirmed that they can work and earn money in agricultural business even if they are not into production (farming); 90.9% think youth can bring energy, vitality, and innovation into the agricultural workforce. it suggests that it would be of great benefit for any agribusiness to find a way of how youth can be actively engaged in their value chain; 82.7% are aware of a variety of income opportunities that exist along the way from farm to consumers; It was interesting to note that though 56.4% of the youth felt there are structural barriers that are hindering them from their full potential and/ or meaningful engagement in existing agribusiness in their communities/districts; While 68.6% believe youths are not properly supported by private sector actors to participate meaningfully in existing agribusiness in their communities/districts. This implies that the opportunity to engage the youth is still big if only the private sector actors could tap into that energy. It was impressive that the youth who participated in this research had a very positive attitude towards agriculture and how they believe that it can be profitable for them. This however is partly contributed to the mindset change that has happened through trainings and demonstrations by some of the private sector actors as well as peer influence among the youth. If one young person in the community gainfully participates in agriculture, then fellow peers will follow suite. More so, if they see that the relationship with the private sector is real and beneficial to them as well then youth are likely to be a part of the value chain. These results are backed up by the Private sector through the key informant interview who stated that “We work with the youths through providing improved maize seeds and fertilizers on credit to enable them harvest high yields. Then after harvesting, we go on to buy the maize from them for processing. So, this strategy has encouraged them to continue growing crops since they have guarantee for market for whatever they will produce”. Therefore, this nature of engagement provides a complete cycle of agricultural value chain that benefits the youths and the private sectors whilst fulfilling the needs and demands for each other.
A case in point is how USAID/FTF-YLA has piloted a market facilitative approach with Byeffe Foods Company to engage 100s of youth into primary production of pumpkins. Byeffe foods is a social enterprise in Mbale eastern Uganda which deals in pumpkin value addition; buys pumpkins, processes them and sells blended pumpkin flour which is nutritious for babies and lactating mothers. This was a startup company when it was identified in 2016 for partnership with YLA. While the company had been able to penetrate the market with its pumpkin floor, it was faced with a challenge of a proper supply chain in that they did not have enough farmers to supply them regularly with pumpkins to be able to produce and meet their market demand which had grown exponentially. USAID/FTF-YLA made a partnership with them to expand their supply chain and over a period of two years Byeffe foods company has expanded their network from just over 100 farmers to 5000 farmers who are mostly young people growing for them pumpkins and over time USAID/FTF-YLA has added more value to the company in terms of enabling them to access proper drying facilities and automated chippers which improved on the production capacity and returns for both the company but mainly the new supply chain of youth who earn a living from production of pumpkins which are bought by Byeffe foods.
Most private sector actors who were the key informants stated that youths do crop production of high valuable crops like onions, sunflower, sell agricultural inputs, work as agents directly with the agribusinesses, offer casual labour, transportation of agricultural products among others. With this kind of engagements, the agribusiness private sector actors think that it will be profitable for more youths since they will be employed through a contract farming model at group level and earn income from their activities that is either on farm production, commission agents or in provision of any other services as demanded by the private sector actors. However, other actors believed that some youths are still reluctant in engaging in agriculture and others come with aim of getting money only in one season that they can use the earnings to do other things like buying boda bodas. However, this is also associated with the increasing pressure on land use and ownership. In the recent past Uganda has experienced many land conflicts.
The objective on the roles that private sector actors can play, most youths (136, 64.2%) cited that conducting trainings for farmers was the top role private sector actors can perform to engage them more in agribusiness; this was favored as it is one tested way of transferring knowledge and skills to the farmers which builds their confidence and capacity to participate in the sector. It also underpins the fact that there is need to revise our education systems as youth appeared to need more skills and knowledge to best perform in the sector. Provision or enabling access to finance comes next with a backup of 133 (62.7%) respondents. The study revealed that though this can be in different forms including access to seed loan or other services like tractors for land opening. This was trailed by signing production contracts with youth as stated by 107 (50.5%) respondents as this would instill a sense of confidence and security in terms of guaranteeing the market and prices for the produce. Enabling them to access agricultural inputs followed as reported by 102 (48.1%) respondents. Enabling adoption and use technology and ICT (30.8%) like mobile payment systems and other mobile enabled related transactions as well as access to genuine inputs (27.1%) were among other key areas that youth identified as key roles by the private sector to support their engagement.
The revealed key barriers for youth in agribusiness; access to finance and skills and knowledge were the top barriers highlighted. Many young people rightly believe that to undertake a meaningful investment in agriculture, there is need to access some basic finance to support land opening and buying of genuine inputs as well as managing the garden including weeding. All these would need basic finance which young people may not have access to. The study revealed however that Byeffe foods company and Sebei farmers were among the private sector actors that were providing seeds to their farmers on loan or half payment, this guaranteed that the farmers had what to plant and that the private sector actors would recover their seed finance at harvest time. This particular strategy responds to two key barriers for lack of access to finance and inputs and most youth needed finance to buy inputs like seed for their gardens. This was followed by lack of skills and knowledge in agriculture. While many young people in Uganda come from rural setting where the main stay for the homesteads is majorly agriculture, many of the youth are using inherent skills from their parents to the extent of their own participation in agriculture. The study revealed however note that some of the agricultural practices of their parents are now deemed traditional and unproductive lobour intensive and time wasting. Youth participating in agriculture need dedicated market driven technical skills, knowledge and adoption of labour and time saving technologies relevant to the respective value chains. Once youth have the relevant technical skills and knowledge in any specific value chain, they are more likely to adopt improved technologies which will improve on the quality and quantity of their yields and or services for better profit margins in agribusiness.
Lack of access to land is another key factor that was stated by 58%.4 as a key barrier for youth engagement in agribusiness. This also varies from region to region based on the social and cultural land tenure systems in the different locations were the research was conducted. I should note though that places like Mbale and greater Bugisu region specifically pose higher inaccessibility challenges for youth to land most especially women. Many young people who have desired to participate in the agricultural value chains having been contracted by the private sector actors, often end up hiring the land for cultivation from peers and other older cohorts who may not have picked the interest yet or have other livelihood options. The respondents also noted that poor prices for agricultural products and lack of market for their produce as stated by 46.3% were also a major barrier in engaging in Agriculture. A case in point is maize production for the first season of 2018, the prices dropped to as low as 100 UGX a KG in some rural parts of the country. Such a drop in the prices affected the entire value chain, we are most likely to see a fall in the production of maize for the seasons between August and December 2018 and then the prices of maize will skyrocket again due to scarcity. This trend of price fluctuations discourages some farmers from these enterprises. This therefore poses a high-risk area if government does not step in and tries to stabilize the market for maize. Farmers are experiencing a higher cost in investment than the returns on actual investment in the maize value chain and thus making it economically unviable. In cases where private sector actors have stable markets and where they signed production contracts with clear indications for the prices, farmers often feel much secure and confident to engage in the value chain at any level to share in the profit margins. The study noted that many of the respondents generalized both market and the prices but through the Key informant interviews the study indicated that 44.9% of the respondents confirmed that in some instances there is absolutely no market for some of their produce like oranges in the rural communities of Teso sub region in Eastern Uganda. This particular region has many farmers engaged in the orange production, however in some instances oranges are left to rot on the trees while the available markets are by the road sides and they are not well structured. The study established that government had moved a step to setting up a fruit factory within in Soroti-Arapai however it was not operational yet. It was thought through that once the fruit factory was operational, then there will be value addition and the demand for oranges and other fruits in the region would go up and thus increasing incomes for farmers growing oranges in the region.
During the key informant interviews, the private sector actors backed up the lack of access to finance, skills and knowledge as well as accessibility to land and fluctuating prices as barriers hindering many other youths from involving in agribusiness. Other barriers stated include unfavorable weather conditions, both the private sector and the farmers reported experiencing unusual weather patterns which is affecting their level of yield due to limited rains and long droughts often the season is quite un predictable and farmers are kept guessing on whether the rains have officially started or not so as they could do the planting. Often many end up planting either much early or very late in the rain season when the rains are almost over, and this affect their production. Pest and diseases have also been a major issue in Uganda. More so the Army worm in the recent past among the maize growers was reported to have affected many farms in the country leading to wide spread losses and almost caused a food shortage in the country. Another reason that was highlighted was the lack of access to genuine inputs. Youth mentioned that they had limited access to quality inputs that would boost their production. Farmers noted that there were many fake agricultural inputs on market and that despite efforts by both the government and private sector actors in fighting fake inputs on the market, they noted that was little progress as the market is still flooded with fake agricultural inputs. Youth farmers are always faced with a challenge of distinguishing between genuine and fake inputs which actually affect the productivity and incomes of the farmers. And thus what farmers face is not merely a lack of access to inputs but it was noted that even when the farmers have the capacity to buy inputs from retail shops and input dealers, they are at a risk of buying fake and substandard agricultural inputs and thus believe that if there were avenues of accessing genuine inputs, then they would be in position to increase their productivity in agricultural value chains. Other factors raised were poor farming methods which are as a result of lack or inability to adopt good practices and use of labour saving or modern agricultural equipment and high transportation costs among other barriers hindering youth participation in agriculture.
The private sector actors on the other hand also needed more capacity and technological development. The need varied from one actor to another though there would be some general administrative gaps that cut across like financial and appropriate records management. To expound on the need for capacity the study noted that one of the private sector actors that was interviewed with is social business seeking to contribute positively towards the social economic and human development of smallholder farmers in the Eastern & North Eastern Uganda with emphasis on women and youth by promoting sustainable agricultural production as a business, with the aim of addressing the challenges of malnutrition, food insecurity, and poverty, the study established that one of the private sector actors was desirous to set up a processing line for the orange fleshed sweet potatoes in Teso sub region and by doing so they will be able to buy more potatoes from their farmers. The Private sector player is relatively new in the industry but are hoping that they would get a partnership with USAID/ Feed The Future-YLA to increase incomes and skills for youth through their value chain. The Private sector has been only buying the high-quality Potatoes; Grade one which is roughly about 60% of a farmers’ total production. The farmer would ideally remain with 40% of the total production and this was over and beyond their need for home consumption. If USAID/FTF-YLA partners with private sector to build their capacity and enable them to set up their own processing line, this will certainly be of great value to the Private sector actor but hugely to the farmers who now will be able to sell all their produce to the private sector player as other graders will now be processed into Flour. The study further noted that private sector was planning to utilize the premises of Arapai Farmers’ Cooperative Society (AFAMCOS) that also has a multimillion cassava flour processing plant which was constructed through the support of World Vision Uganda as part of their long term’s community-based development initiatives. However, due to poor management, the plant has turned out to be a “white elephant” for the last three years and almost treated as a tourist attraction. The machinery that was installed at the plant is still fully functional as AFAMCOS they have had some sporadic processing of cassava for some of their members. Had there been a strong and capable management of AFAMCOS, it would be surely serving the Arapai community to date and continue processing the cassava as a way to add value and meet the required market demands. AFAMCOs therefore lacked basic management principles and structures that would sustain the running of the facility.
In regard to the objective on untapped opportunities, youths and agribusiness private sector actors believe that there is plenty of room at production level for their peers to find a product they are knowledgeable and skilled about to produce for the market. This is followed by casual labouring as indicated by 45% of the respondents, though the study established that casual labour was mainly offered by older youth. Then, this is trailed by provision of extension services and trading/ broking as informed in either case by 44 % of the respondents. Private sector actors also noted that they were interested in working with more youth in other levels of the value chain like as commission agents who help them with the aggregation of produce as a primary collection center before the private sector actors would pick it from the different collection centers and that other youth can participate agro-processing level either working within the companies directly or any kind of value addition before selling to the companies, trading and marketing processes which hugely takes in young people as their field agents to support in the field extension activities and trading. They also noted that youth can actually form groups of young people who are trained and professionalise into spray service brigades to offer spraying services to fellow peers and the community including enabling access to quality inputs if such youth are directly in touch with the input dealers who are certified in the community or are known for selling genuine inputs, Other opportunities lie in setting up of nurseries and selling seedlings instead of seed as many people do not have skills that would be necessary to manage a nursery bed which is often the very first main loss that a farmer incurs in case they don’t have basic skills for nursery bed management so this was looked at as a another opportunity for such crops that required nursery bed establishment other key services suggested included offering of mobile irrigation services and stamping and pruning , it was argued that if youth are organized and skilled in such areas they are most likely to get employed in the sector beyond the production level. Private sector actors were also keen to point out the use and adoption of ICT for agriculture as another growing opportunity for youth to gainfully participate in agriculture, Youths are already using ICT and there are many ICT innovations in the sector by different companies like Akorion Ltd which create varying opportunities from data collection using smart phones to mobile transactions and order taking where youth can be employed to earn commissions. Other companies included private sector actors such Quest digital finance Limited, popularly known as “Akello banker” which is a financial technologies company that innovates mobile and web-based Solutions that increase access to a broad range of inclusive financial services that meet various needs of African Communities. All these companies and others which are focused on addressing all key challengers including mobiles extension services and enabling Realtime updates on market prices are among many other opportunities for youth created through ICT innovations and adaptations.
On the other hand, some private sector actors believe that there is untapped opportunity in the finance area. They strongly perceive that youths have not fully utilized the agricultural loans that are at disposal in the financial institutions through different government programs. For example, a private sector actor showed a concern on how these kinds of programs are not being sensitized adequately to create awareness about the availability and procedures of acquiring the agricultural loans. A private sector through the interview narrated that;
“Youth need to access money from the bank. There is money for youths and few youths know about this agricultural credit fund offered by government and those ones who are aware don’t know where to go, who to go to, so they are manipulated and scared. The money for the youth is there and people are sitting on it. He added that, recently the minister was saying that the agricultural credit fund has been there for ten years. But when you go to any bank branch and ask about the money, they don’t know anything. We are trying to engage with centenary bank to enable youth access the fund and assure them the market for their produce”. (Source: Primary source, interview conducted on Saturday, September 29, 2018)
This study sought to understand the roles that can be played by the private sector actors if they want more youth be a part of their production machinery then they need to see that there are mechanisms in place that are enabling youth to access basic inputs, in some instances some of the seeds may not be readily available to the farmers and that the farmers have to just buy them or depend on the private sector actor to provide. Take an example of onions, sunflower and soya seeds or vines for Orange Fleshed Sweet potatoes. The other close roles that can be considered are setting up demonstration gardens (42.9%) which are key for practical skilling and knowledge transfer. Youth can own these demonstration sites and they will influence many of their peers. It would however be very key for private sector actors to see to it the demonstration plots serve their purpose of skills and knowledge transfer by showcasing the economic potential of any given value chain and what farmers need to do to in order to duplicate the economic benefit in their own gardens. Private sector can also support the process of mobilize and organizing youths into groups as indicated by 39.2% respondents, This serves to benefit both the private sector and the youth in the lenses of economies of scale, this can also be reinforced by the recruitment of youth agents (34.9%) who would ideally support the process of collective marketing and recruitment of fellow peers in the value chain, provide extension services (28.3%) to support the adoption of technologies and good agronomic practices which the youth would have learned from the trainings and set up nearby collection centers (25.5%) which would reduce on the transport costs for the farmers when selling their produce. The study clearly established that all key barriers fronted by young people as limiting factors to participate in agribusiness were also suggested as ways through which the private sector can engage youth in agribusiness. These therefore suggest that private sector actors are key gate keepers to gainful participation of youth in agribusiness as this is a relationship based on mutual economic benefit for both the private sector actor and the youth in agribusiness. Youths were further interviewed about the kind of support they need to perform better in the agribusiness. Table 4.7 clearly shows that 169 (79.0%) respondents still see training (skills and knowledge) as the most need in their agribusiness involvement. This corresponds to the top role private sector actors can play to engage more youths in agribusiness. The important needs that youth preferred was access to ready market (67.3%) and access to finance (57.5%) still ranked among critical aspects that youth needed as support either indirectly or as a way of linkage to financial institutions that would administer the same, and stable prices for the agricultural products (51.4%) followed in closely to the markets and finance, indicating that it was not only an issue of market but good prices too were important. The youths also registered other needs that included agricultural tools/equipment (38.3%), extension support (37.9%), that would underpin continuous on farm support during production and management of any pest and diseases in the due course.
4.7.1 Implications from methodology and data availability
The researcher relied on already existing agribusinesses that were in partnership with USAID/FTFYLA for primary data availability it was clear in terms of sample size where they could get the data from the private sector and their corresponding youth under their respective value chains.
Given the fact that agriculture employs more than a half of the Uganda’s working population, the agricultural data is more available across the country if the right data collection methods are employed to the right participants for a broader and much detailed study but in addition the USAID/FTF-YLA activity is spread across all regions in Uganda and could be rallying point for in a similar study.
4.7.2 Implications of findings for theory / policy / practice
The research provided perspectives around agribusiness value chain opportunities that exist but are not tapped by the young people; the factors constraining youths from meaningful engagement in agribusiness and with the private sector actors; possible remedies and support youths need from agribusinesses and other stakeholders to benefit from the agricultural venture. The study further revealed that all youths that participated in research were farmers with higher percentage in the cohort of age group 20 – 29 years. And they are mainly involving in first level of agricultural value chains that are production or farming with few in other levels such as agro-processing, trading, marketing and transportation. This can be due to most Ugandans being rural based where most factors favor crop production, animal rearing and poultry keeping. Besides having numerical advantage in the sector, the study has revealed that private sector actors who are creating avenues to engage more youth in their value chain are more likely to sustain their businesses as young people have brought energy in production, vitality, and innovation into the work force hence contributing significantly to the development of agriculture sector even at a national level.
The research indicates that we have high literacy levels among the youth as 96%percent of youth respondents have accessed basic education, however it is intriguing to note 33% ended at primary level as their highest level of education so this includes even those who dropped out of primary schools for various reason without completing their education, I also noted with concern that 80% of the respondents were unable to proceed to tertiary education . What is important here in relation to our research was work force readiness for young males and females and how this research could inform a thorough review of our education system and associated curriculum at different levels of learning for primary secondary and tertiary education. All these young people are currently engaged in agribusiness of which they require a set market driven skills and knowledge to thrive in the sector. I find it imperative that there should be efforts within the education system to ensure that agribusiness is introduced to pupils in primary school that even when they drop out of school before completing their primary education, they will have acquired basic skills and knowledge. Young People who drop out of school are more likely to use basic agronomic skills together with basic numeracy acquired while still in school coupled with financial literacy to participate in any opportunities along the agriculture value chain as a livelihood option after school. One such partner working with USAID/Feed the Future is The Private Education Development Network (PEDN) which promotes and integrate entrepreneurial programs, active teaching and learning in the formal and informal education system with a mission to empower young people in Uganda through innovative and demand led entrepreneurial interventions that enable them to transform their livelihoods and communities. PEDN has worked with 385 Primary schools, 244 Secondary schools to include informal youth groups reaching over 250,000 beneficiaries directly and over 300,000 indirectly with a key focus on agriculture and financial literacy.
Interestingly, this study found out that generally, youths had positive attitudes and perceptions towards engaging in agriculture as a business. I should note however that this is a process of mindset change which develops as youth see the possibilities of earning in the sector and when they are more supported through technical skills and knowledge transfer, they are more likely to have a positive attitude. If one young person in the community gainfully participates in agriculture, then fellow peers will follow suite. More so, if they see that the relationship with the private sector is real and beneficial to them as well then youth are likely to be a part of the value chain. It was further revealed that private sector actors were encouraging youth participation in different levels of agricultural values. This kind of correlation between these key players in agriculture promotes mutual desire to work as positive partners in supporting each other while sharing the profit margins of agricultural value chains. This relationship can lead to the establishment of sustainable agricultural systems through private sector actors to build the capacity of youths through trainings, providing financial support, agricultural inputs, agricultural demonstration visits among others hence leading to return on investment for the private sector actors.
Evidently, there are still significant challenges and constraints to young people’s effective involvement in agribusiness led by inadequate access to resources such as agricultural information, knowledge, land, finance and agricultural in puts as compared to other minor challenges. This means that the existing bottlenecks in the business require collective and systematic approaches to find plausible solutions and interventions to the sector. In case, these barriers are reduced more youths can be attracted to meaningfully engage in gainful agribusiness as they appreciate the rewards and benefits of their active actions in the agricultural value chains. More so, if they are not financially literate and not participating in any savings schemes for these purposes. However, if youth are enrolled in any savings scheme such as a VSLA or SACCOs or even an investment group in a bank, they are more likely to use their own savings to facilitate access to quality inputs and other agricultural tools or equipment and services that would be necessary for improved production in their respective value chains. The study revealed that the Private sector actors even when do not have structures as financial institutions may wield a lot of influence in enabling youth access financial services like input loans a case in point is our interactions with a social enterprise; Development Measures International (DMI) based in Soroti, through a business plan they submitted to Microfinance Support Center(MSC), they have been able to secure an inputs loan facility which has been disbursed on behalf of seven Rural Producer Organizations (RPCs) in Kaberamaido district for the purposes of enabling over 6000 members belonging to the RPCs to access quality hybrid Agsun Sunflower seed which was sourced by Ngetta Tropical Holdings (NTH) which also provides market for the sunflower produce by the farmers. DMI is hopeful to support over 6000 farmers through their respective RPCs with one Kilogram of seeds to each farmer which is worth an Acre and then they will be able to buy from all these farmers the produce and sell it back to NTH. The issue of access to finance may not necessarily be a barrier but a great opportunity for the private sectors offering financial services and other enablers to break the chains of limited financial access to enable youth to meaningfully engage in agribusiness. The private sector actors also noted that there were some government efforts to provide agricultural credit services to youth like the agricultural financial credit fund provided by the government through banks, but the youth were not utilizing it either because they are unaware, or they did not have the prerequisite requirements to access it.
The study shows that the participants reported various untapped economic opportunities that exist along the agricultural value chains from seed to fork. It has proved that the most opportunities are within the production level offered by existence of vast land and low engagement in producing high valuable crops like onions, soya beans, ginger, and sunflower among others. The opportunities keep on showing at agro-processing level that adds value to the raw agricultural products. These could make the youths who are or not engaging in agriculture earn more money and enjoy the returns of their investments. There is more potential in agriculture that can offer productive employment opportunities for the youths improve on their welfare and economic survival.
4.8. Summary of data presentation and analysis
This chapter presented the demographics representation of the study and findings for each of the objectives that the study undertook guided by the research design and data collection tools that were analyzed to present qualitative and quantitative descriptions to answer the study topic that the researcher under took. Discussions in this chapter were informed by primary data collection and arguments were made in reference to other scholarly writings which the researcher has referenced in the discussions of findings.
In summary this study revealed that there were more male than women who were currently engaged in agribusiness. It’s also true that there are more females participating in agriculture, however the male counter parts are better positioned when it comes to earning incomes from agriculture. The main crops grown for business are mainly maize, soya and beans in eastern Uganda where the study was conducted.
The study revealed that there are high school dropout rates among the youth with where only 21.4% make it to tertiary institutes and only 41% make it to Secondary level. Its alarming however as the study revealed that 33.2 % of youth never graduate from primary education. The study also showed that the agribusiness private sector is currently engaging youth in primary production and it also revealed that there are still many untapped opportunities for youth still within the level of production lever. Both the agribusiness private sector actors and the youth had a positive perception about working with each other as this was a mutual benefit to all of them, the private sector actors have cultivated this relationship by helping the youth to address some of their fears.
The study revealed the main barriers that are hindering youth from participating in agribusiness as lack of access to finance, skills and knowledge as the leading barriers for gainful youth participation in agribusiness. Finally, the chapter looked at the specific roles that the private sector actors could play, and the study revealed that skills development and enabling access to finance as the top roles, ways and entry points for the private sector actors in agribusiness to scale up among young people in agribusiness. The study is an eye opener to what the private sector actors, donor agencies and government need to priorities in order to involve more youth in agriculture. Ideally all the barriers highlighted here can be resolved by the private sector actors if they are only facilitated to do so through a market facilitative approach.
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.0 Introduction
This chapter presents the summary of findings across the objectives as presented in the chapter above. The conclusions and recommendations suggested here were based on the objectives of the study and its findings.
5.1 Summary of the findings
The research also points to the fact that the specific age cohort of 20-24 includes many young people who have completed secondary school but are unable to proceed to university of vocational institutes. Agriculture however stills remains their greatest employment opportunity as indicated in the findings.
The study revealed that most of the young people are participating in agricultural production but there are more men than women who are engaged in agribusiness working with the existing private sector actors and this was hugely attributed to social and cultural practices in the different rural communities where the study was conducted. There is however an unmet demand for production of market demanded produce through the private sector and thus there is still a big gap between what the markets need and what is supplied from the market. Youth therefore with a conducive environment have a great opportunity to take advantage of this level of the value chain and produce for the market.
The study also revealed that private sector and youth have a positive attitude towards working together in a meaningfully and gainful relationships that guaranteed economic gains for every party. The youth who are working under or through contract farming valued agriculture and believe that they can make profits in the agriculture sector. Youth highlighted how they perceived a good relationship with the sector actors and they mentioned key concerns which the private sector actors need to take into consideration to support them more in agribusiness including more skills development and a guarantee of good prices and market access.
The study revealed key structural and social barriers to meaningful youth participation in existing agribusinesses, while the private sector players are still limited across the country, it would be key for government to attract or incentivize investment into private sector actors in the agricultural sector as this would in turn support many young people to grow for a ready market. The main key barrier that was highlighted was on access to finance followed by the lack of skills and knowledge for improved productivity
The study revealed that while youth are mainly engaged in primary production, they were aware of other opportunities that exist along the agricultural value chains but a limited number of them were engaging at the different levels but mostly considered input dealership and trading as brokers and offering causal labour as other alternatives to primary production. The study was also able to establish what private sector actors can do to engage more youth in their agribusiness and it was revealed that agribusiness private Sector actors offer are very critical in pivoting a workforce readiness skills which are relevant to their respective value chains and ensuring that their farmers had access to the right inputs and can do so by making the right linkages as well as enabling access to credit facilities that support production. Importantly the private sector actors provide the primary market and guarantee prices for their agricultural products from the farmers among other roles.
5.2 Conclusion
The private sector facilitative approach is an innovative solution that has been tested and ready for scalability and can be adopted by government and development partners, directing it towards increasing economic opportunities for young people in agribusiness in Uganda while building their entrepreneurship and leadership skills for workforce readiness in the agricultural sector. There is therefore a need for government and donor agencies to embrace a private sector centered approach on engaging young people in agribusiness. Private sector actors are desirous to increase their capacity but face some limitation including related to quantity, quality and Finance and Market access in some instances. If the government and donor agencies focus on adding value or addressing the gaps that the private sector actors face like Improving on their technologies for better performance, efficiency and quality controls that meet their market demand, then they will be much placed to perform at full potential and thus engaging many people along their entire value chains. If government and other donor agencies embraced this approach, we are likely to see gainful youth participation and innovations in the agricultural sector and entire value chains. We cannot continue to render the national population dependent on government and donor handouts for seeds and other inputs, yet we have an able and capable population that is not fully tapped into for them to engage in agriculture.
The Study revealed that 78.6% of the youth never made it beyond secondary education. We cannot wait for youth to join tertiary institutes to begin teaching them about practical skill in agriculture s 80% of them will be left behind. We therefore need to strengthen our existing agricultural market systems to support existing stakeholders as well as review our education system to introduce basic agriculture is children right from the early classes in primary schools coupled with other technical market driven skills including financial literacy to enable every child to have the ability to engage in the sector with basic knowledge.
Private sector actors offer varying economic opportunities unique to their sectoral set up to youth in agribusiness along their value chains. They therefore form critical and central component in Uganda’s economy and have a capacity to transform not only the agricultural sector but the entire economy by fostering development through agriculture.
The role of agribusiness private sector in creating economic development for youth in agriculture cannot be undermined in light of national development due to its inclusive approach for all people but mostly young people. Putting this into consideration and the growing job gap in Uganda and an economy reliant on agriculture for growth and food security. Uganda is at cross roads and risks not achieving the sustainable development goals if evidence-based interventions are not considered right now. Agriculture is what we can base on in trying to fulfill the phrase “Leave No one Behind” as agriculture has the capacity to gainfully employ more than 80% of the total national population which depend on it for survival . Uganda has the rare opportunity to achieve sustainable development goals by squarely focusing on adopting an integrated and inclusive effective approach which focuses on strengthening the agricultural market systems while ensuring that the education and Health systems are serving rightly its population.
Based on this research we can draw conclusions on what is working and what is not working as an intervention for our country in the agricultural sector. The Uganda government needs to draw lessons from way back from its past National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS) intervention successes and limitations but not only limit learning to the failure the misappropriation public resources but focus on more on why we did not achieve the intended results with the approach. The government of Uganda is now working through Operation Wealth Creation (OWC) which is ideally a military led effort through which government distributes agricultural inputs like Coffee seedlings, Orange stems, and Maize seeds among others. This arrangement has been looked at a direct military operation through the lenses of many international and donor agencies and some agencies like USAID are hindered and barred from directly using US citizen tax payer’s money to support any overseas military operations of any nature. In this case Government could be losing out on some direct partnerships for development in the agricultural sector. OWC is hugely focused on logistical coverage and distribution inputs as required but falls short of many success indicators to the improvement of the agricultural sector. The Uganda government and many donor agencies working through Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) have failed to understand that the direct delivery conventional approach of giving people handouts inform of inputs only creates a dependency syndrome and that every season; the population will open their hands expecting to receive. As if that is not bad enough, this direct delivery approach by government and donor agencies does not support the setup of dependable and sustainable agricultural market systems but instead breaks them down. A case in point would be input shops that sell improved maize seeds for planting and when government comes in to offer the farmers the same seeds, these input dealers run from business and their businesses break down. But what if government subsidizes such seeds through the private sector actors to enable all those in need to access them locally at an affordable price!
5.3 Recommendations
Government and donor agencies need to adopt a market facilitative approach that puts the agribusiness private sector actors as engines to propel the agriculture sector in Uganda. Government and other implementing partners can give handups to private sector actors in the agricultural business for example ensuring input markets are strengthened by fighting sub-standard and fake inputs and perhaps subsidizing genuine inputs through the private sector actors, but not instead giving handouts like inputs as solution to fake agricultural inputs on the market. However, if they continue to offer direct support inform of inputs and other tangible agricultural inputs or services, this will break the existing agricultural markets system and can only be sustained for the lifetime of the project. In cases where such an approach has been used and when the project ends, the community is left in a direr state with no functional inputs markets as they were substituted by donor or government handouts. We can rather focus on adding value to the existing agribusiness private sector actors so that we scale up their businesses as they will in turn engage more people and supporting linkages for both inputs and output markets among other interventions. In light of the above, the government of Uganda instead of only relying on other industries which can only create a handful of jobs, can create meaningful economic opportunities through partnership with agribusiness private sector actors that have a capacity to engage thousands of out growers in their supply chain and this means that everyone in that value chain is ideally employed by that company along their value chains.
The research indicates that there are many young people who are entering the agricultural sector at the age of 15-24 but mostly between 20-24 up to 35 years as indicated in the findings. It was interesting to note that the younger cohort of youth between 15 and 19 years old was also engaged in agribusiness yet this is largely an age bracket expected to be in school. This should send a signal to agribusiness actors, government and financial institutions of what inclusive financial solutions could be made available and accessible to a 15-year-old who are engaged in agribusiness. While a 15-year-old is expected to be still in school, the reality of school dropout is eminent and there is need to plan for such young people who are unable to proceed with school but need a livelihood. Further to note, the next cohort of 20-to 24 is a mixture of in school and out of school youth who have either finished their secondary education or have dropped out. There is therefore need to intensify practical skills transfer in formal and non-formal settings for this age category to ensure that youth get the right set of skills relevant to agribusiness to enable them look at agriculture as a viable income generating option even when they drop out of school are unable to continue with further education and this can be best determined through the private sector partnerships who would mobilize their own supply chain. Government therefore needs to better plan for a more youth involvement and find support mechanisms and solutions that address their challenges and barriers in the sector There is also need to innovate and integrate approaches which support strengthening of agricultural market systems for sustainability and improving the education and health systems through revising the national curriculum to support early technical agricultural market skills development and access to reproductive health services given the fact that most of the youth are in reproductive age.
The research findings indicating that the biggest barrier to meaningful youth engagement is finance is a wakeup call for many interventions by all stakeholders including the private sector particularly financial institutions and government to create avenues for youth to be able to access finance for agricultural purposes. For instance, if young people are enabled to access hybrid seeds of sunflower like the Agsan seed that is provided to Sebei farmers SACCO by Ngetta Tropical Holdings Ltd, an agribusiness private sector player also working with USAID FTF/YLA which is producing “Virgin Gold cooking oil”. Young people will be better placed to produce between 200 and 400 kilograms more if they used improved seeds which cost only 65,000 UGX and this can cover an acre. The problem faced by the SACCO is that to begin engaging youth who have not been in agribusiness and they don’t have income on them to buy improved seed, they will resort to using local seed which can only yield about 600 Kgs, yet the hybrid seed would potentially give them about 1000kgs and thus increased incomes and return on investment. Therefore, banks and other local financial institutions like Village Savings and loan associations and SACCOs need to play a central role in enabling young people access such financial services or at the bare minimum seed loans to jumpstart them in agribusiness. Alternatively, the dealers in such products like sunflower which they are sure is not locally consumable for food and that by all means will end up in the market should devise ways of how they cultivate a relationship where farmers can access this seed on loan and then pay back when the produce is ready. A case in point is a Sebei farmers SACCO which has a Memorandum of Understanding with AK oil limited (Mukwano Industries limited) as a sole distributer of their seed in the Sebei region in eastern Uganda. Innovatively Sebei farmers SACCO engaged its members in growing of sunflower as an Income Generating Activity (IGA) to boost savings and loans. They enabled their members to access seed on credit after making only 50% contribution towards the seed they needed, and this has enabled the SACCO to engage over 2000 new farmers in the region who have also joined their SACCO as members and they will sell back the Produce to Mukwano through the SACCO. This can only show us what a single private sector actor can do to gainfully engage thousands of youth in Agribusiness within a short period of time.
The study revealed that 69% of the youth were currently living as married or cohabiting while another 5.5% were either widowed or separated. What this means was that is that youth are a critical component that is contributing to population growth in the country. There is therefore need to innovate and integrate health systems within any agricultural interventions that would enable access to reproductive health services for the young people. For the agricultural sector to thrive we definitely need a healthy population that is free from disease and in light of the risks among young people like HIV/AIDS, we need to integrate health massaging and enable access to youth friendly sexual reproductive health and services for all young people to ensure that there is protection against such diseases and if necessary that the youth who are mostly unemployed have access to services that will inform their choices for reproduction and family planning to avoid them having unwanted pregnancies or unplanned for children which they cannot manage to support in terms of providing basic needs including education and food.
Based on this study , it was revealed that among the respondents there were more men than women involved in agribusiness at 44% as opposed to 56 % for women and men respectively, having discussed some of the social cultural practices that have brought about this inequality, there is need to categorically empower position more women as leaders in agribusiness as they form the majority of people in agriculture. What we see from the study is that there are more women in agriculture but more men in agribusiness and thus government and other stakeholders need to see that barriers such as land are dealt with through creating policy frameworks and land reforms that will enable women to be access land not and own it. This will help us as a country to fight any such related vices like domestic violence, gender violence and all inequalities associated to gender which mostly affect the women of all ages. There is also need for development efforts to be geared towards promoting acceptable and inclusive social and cultural practices while fighting practices that put young girls and women in a vulnerable state economically and socially in their respective communities.
There is need for government to consider an agricultural sector that is driven by the private sector through a market facilitative approach. Government and other civil society organizations need to create meaningful partnerships that strengthen existing systems and add value to the sector through local players. If we must transform the agricultural sector and engage more youth in it, then we need to put the private sector as drivers of this change. From this research we can learn that USAID FTF/YLA has piloted this project with the objective of increasing incomes and improving skills of over 350,000 youth in Uganda through agribusiness private sector actors. If the population is not geared towards producing for the market and in this case the dealers in the market and the people who understand the money in the agricultural sector are the agribusiness companies which buy and sell agricultural products and services. If these companies are facilitated and repositioned to perform at full capacity, then they are more likely to sustain and create numerous gainful economic opportunities for majority youth which are relevant to the job market.
This research is more evident that many young people are either dropping out of or ending in primary school (33%) and thus introducing agriculture at primary level will serve to equip youth with technical skills relevant to undertake agriculture as an option for a livelihood but also change mindsets for youth to look at agriculture as a future career option in both vocational institutes and universities for further career development. However, this can only be possible if by the time of dropping off school or finishing primary education every child has had practical and relevant experience in agriculture and have formed a positive mindset towards agribusiness as a profitable venture. There is need to review our education system based on the evidence presented which shows that there is an ardent need for primary and secondary schools to expose students to agriculture in both formal and non-formal trainings like establishment of demonstration gardens in schools and other club activities that support the transfer of life skills.
The study revealed that only 22% of the respondents were able to make it to tertiary institutes. There is need to broaden this statistic and see to it that more youth comprising of 78% are not left behind but are also enabled to acquire practical skills that are on demand in our job market either through tertiary institutes or non-formal innovative models like Farmer Field Schools (FFS) for out of school youth or through extracurricular activities like agricultural clubs for in school youth. If government and other development partners focus on investing in set up and full functionality of vocational institutes that have a key focus on agriculture courses where students are exposed to different schools of thought , practices and technologies like use of irrigations and adoption of improved inputs for productivity, management practices of different agricultural value chains , then the institutes will be will be best placed to transfer technical skills to an energetic population and professionalise them into different disciplines like Professional input dealers, extension workers or agronomists and any other entrepreneurial discipline as may surface within the sector. Such training is what will promote further innovation and improve on technical skills development in the communities where such graduates would lead on the informal trainings through strategies like farmer field schools to support rural farmers gain knowledge and skills in their agricultural practice. It would be therefore important for government to invest in the setup of more vocational institutes with a major focus on agriculture making them more accessible to the youth as the biggest reason why some of them are unable to proceed to universities is affordability. There is also a need to integrate basic agriculture and financial literacy and numeracy right from primary schools.
Schools should plan for exposure visits to demonstration farms for various crops, animal and poultry management; agricultural exhibitions that bring together different actors along the whole agricultural value chain like agricultural trade shows; delivering trainings on entrepreneurship and life skills including business preparation and management, financial literacy, market research, product development under agro-processing ventures among others.
Financial inclusion is still a gap that is affecting the youths’ engagement in agribusiness. Schools, Government and financial institutions need to find innovative and inclusive financial solution backed by continuous financial literacy among young people both in school and out of school. There is need for youths right from in school need to be encouraged to begin saving money so that they grow up knowing the value of saving and making sound financial decisions which will support them in agriculture like being a part of a SACCO and VSLA. The government and development partners need to sensitise the communities about the agricultural financial and institutions programs for example the agricultural credit funds that exist, but the youths cannot access it because of being ignorant about the availability and process of acquiring the funds. Thus, the issue and challenge of low capital to start up will be reduced and enable most youths to thrive through their agricultural startups.
There is therefore a need to support innovative and inclusive local financial solutions that will support youth outside school to organize and belong to a group which are considered as the primary administrative units for producer group trainings and they also support local and primary financial savings and access to other agricultural services offered by private sector actors like extension services. Youth should therefore be advised to organize themselves in groups for cohesion but also to support other functions like collective bulking and marketing as well as offering peer security when it comes to access to credit either through SACCOs or established financial institutions like banks.
5.4 Summary of Conclusions and recommendations
This chapter presented a summary conclusion and recommendation based on the findings discussed in chapter 4 above. It gives an overall picture on the findings, the conclusions drawn, and recommendations made on each of the objectives undertaken by the study.
Uganda has a great opportunity with its current demographic of the youth comprising of over 78% of the national population and being the second youngest population in the world. To look at it not as a problem but as an opportunity to tap into their energy and innovation for economic transformation of the agricultural sector where most youth specially the majority rural can equally make a formidable contribution towards their own development by creating for them entry points in agriculture through agribusiness private sector actors. The youth is a human capital and dividend and thus should not be looked at as national economic strain but an opportunity on which we can tap into to transform our agricultural economy through private sector partnerships in agribusiness. There is need for us to use innovative evidence-based interventions which build on local systems and are effective and sustainable. We need to invest resources in effective interventions that support the strengthening or improvement of agricultural and education systems. It is only when we approach development more so in the agriculture sector from this angle that we will be able to realize increased adoption of technologies that improve productivity provision of market-driven technical skills development and services by private sector firms. This will increase access to input and output markets by the youths and will create employment opportunities for them along the value chains.
Overall donors and government need to change their approaches to international development in third world countries like Uganda and others in the rest of Africa and beyond. We cannot continue to use conventional methods which render Africa and Uganda dependent on donor money or the citizens depending on government handouts.
5.4.1 Suggestions for further research
I would suggest that a research be carried out on the effectiveness and sustainability of Government interventions in agriculture particularly Operation Wealth Creation.
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APPENDICES
Appendix 1. Timetable
The research was completed within a space of 6 weeks as indicated in the table below
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Appendix 2. Budget
The Research costed me 1,730,000 UGX. Major costs involved included recruitment of research assistants and supporting the pretesting exercise and pilot them and do data collection. Other costs included general stationery, transportation, communication and refreshments for the team during the 6 weeks period
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Appendix 3. Questionnaire
STRUCTURED INDIVIDUAL QUESTIONNAIRE
Hello, we are conducting a research study on the Role of agribusiness private sector actors in creating economic opportunities for youth in agriculture. Your participation in this study will generate findings that will explore the role of agribusiness private sector actors in creating gainful economic opportunities for youth along their value chains in their agricultural businesses.
You have been randomly selected to represent yourself and other young people who we will not be able to speak to us because of the short time of the survey. This is a completely voluntary process and you are free to decline to take part in it. And be rest assured that any information you will provide to us will be confidential and your identity shall not be revealed to any other third party or in the report.
The interview will take about 20 minutes. With your consent, I would like to ask you a few questions.
Respondent Consented… Yes … No.. (Tick Yes or No)
If yes,
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SECTION 100: SOCIO-DEMOGRAPHIC INFORMATION
Q 101 What is your sex?
1. Male
2. Female
Q 102 What is your age?
Q 103 What is your marital status?
1. Never Married
2. Married
3. Separated
4. Widow/widower
5. Cohabiting
Q 104 What is your highest level of education?
1. None
2. Primary
3. Secondary
4. Tertiary
Q104 Which of the following agribusiness groups do you belong to? (Circle all that apply)
1. Farmer group
2. SACCO
3. Area Cooperative Enterprise
4. I don’t belong to any group
5. Others please Specify ….
SECTION 200: YOUTH PARTICIPATION IN THE EXISTING AGRIBUSINESS WHILE SHARING IN PROFIT MARGINS
Q 201 Are you/ youths engaging in any agribusiness?
1. Yes
2. No (Skip to Q 205)
Q 202 If yes to Q 201, Which type of farming do you practice? (Circle that apply)
1. Poultry
2. Animal production
3. Crop production
Q 203 If yes to Q 201, how do you engage in this agribusiness? (Circle main three)
1. Inputs dealer
2. Farmer/Producer
3. Processor
4. Trader / Broker
5. Extension services
6. Transportation Services
7. Dealers in farm tools and equipment
8. Casual labourer
9. Others specify ()
Q204 If you do crop production which items do you sell to get an income? (Open to Multiple Selection)
1. Maize
2. Sunflower
3. Beans
4. Chilli
5. Potatoes
6. Soya
7. Pumpkins
8. Coffee
9. Others please specify (…)
Q 205 If No to Q 20 1, why aren’t You/Youth engaged in agribusiness? (Open to multiple responses)
1. Lack of finance
2. Lack access to quality inputs
3. Lack basic skills and knowledge
4. Lack of access to land
5. Lack access to ready market
6. Climate change or unpredictable weather patterns
7. Negative perceptions towards agriculture
8. Low productivity and Minimal profits
9. Lack access to improved technologies
10. Others specify ()
11. Don’t know
Q 206 Do private sector actors engage you/youths in agribusiness ventures in this community/district?
1. Yes
2. No (Go to section three)
Q 207 If Yes to Q 206, which category of private sectors / organizations engage you/youths in agribusiness ventures? (Please specify private sectors according to the category)
1. Companies/factories
2. Financial institutions
3. Cooperatives
4. SACCOs
5. Development partners such as NGOs, CSOs, CBOs etc.
6. Private Individuals
7. Others specify (..)
Q 208 What has the private sector actor done to engage you/youth in agribusiness? (Choose the main three ways)
1. Providing trainings
2. Providing agricultural inputs
3. Providing tools and equipment
4. Providing credit facilities
5. Providing market
6. Providing employment opportunities in agribusiness sector
7. Others specify (…)
SECTION 300: PERCEPTIONS YOUTH HAVE TOWARDS ENGAGING WITH PRIVATE SECTOR ACTORS AT DIFFERENT LEVELS OF THEIR VALUE CHAINS
State whether you agree, disagree or don’t know and CIRCLE the responses accordingly.
(NB Interviewer: please read the following statements).
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SECTION FOUR: BARRIERS THAT HINDER YOUTH FROM MEANINGFUL ENGAGEMENT IN EXISTING AGRIBUSINESSES
Q 401 Which of the following mainly limits young people in this community/district from involving in meaningful existing agribusiness? (Select at most three )
1. Lack skills and knowledge in agriculture
2. Lack access to land
3. Lack access to finance
4. Lack market for their produce
5. Poor prices for agricultural products
6. Lack genuine inputs and tools
7. Youths are not organized in groups
8. Youth a have negative attitude towards agriculture
9. Others specify (…)
SECTION 500: OPPORTUNITIES THAT EXIST BUT ARE UNTAPPED BY THE YOUTH IN THE AGRIBUSINESS ENVIRONMENT.
Q 501 Are there income generating activities in agribusiness that you/youths can participate in your community?
Yes
No (Skip to Q 503)
Q 502 If yes, which ones? (Circle main four)
2. Inputs dealer
3. Dealers in farm tools and equipment
4. Producer/Farmer
5. Extension services
6. Casual labourer
7. Trader / Broker
8. Transportation Services
9. Processor
10. Others specify ()
Q 503 Which income generating activities are you personally participating in? (Circle all that apply)
1. Inputs dealer
2. Dealers in farm tools and equipment
3. Producer/Farmer
4. Extension services
5. Casual labourer
6. Trader / Broker
7. Transportation Services
8. Processor
9. Others specify ()
SECTION 600: ROLE OF AGRIBUSINESS PRIVATE SECTOR ACTORS IN ENGAGING MORE YOUTH IN THEIR AGRIBUSINESSES
Q 601 What can private sectors do to engage more youth in their businesses ? (Circle main four)
1. Sign production contracts with youth
2. Enable access to Inputs
3. Set up demonstration gardens
4. Conduct trainings for farmers
5. Provide finance
6. Recruit youth Agents
7. Provide extension services
8. Mobilize and organize youth into groups
9. Set up nearby collection centers
10. Others Specify (…)
Q 602 What kind of support do you need to improve on your earnings in Agriculture? (Circle main four)
1. Trainings (Skills and Knowledge)
2. Access to finance
3. Access to Market
4. Stable prices for products
5. Access to genuine inputs
6. Extension support
7. Technology and ICT
8. Agricultural tools/Equipment
9. Others specify…
…. THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME! .
Appendix 4. Key informant interview
KEY INFORMANT INTERVIEW GUIDE
Hello, my name is …., a research assistant conducting a research study on the role of agribusiness private sector actors in creating economic opportunities for youth in agriculture. Your participation in this study will generate findings that will explore the role of agribusiness private sector actors in creating gainful economic opportunities for youth in agribusiness value chains.
You have been randomly selected to represent yourself and or other private sector actors who we will not be able to speak to us because of the short time of the survey. This is a completely voluntary process and you are free to decline to take part in it. And be rest assured that any information you will provide to us will be confidential and your identity shall not be revealed to any other third party or in the report.
The interview will take about one hour. With your consent, I would like to ask you a few questions.
Respondent Consented… Yes … No.. If yes,
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Key informant Interview Questions
Understanding basics about the business, Value chain, Supply chain, Market Access, finances, Human Resource/organogram/ Management, Business gaps /Challenges and solutions
1. Are there ways youth can participate in your agribusiness while sharing in profit margins? If yes, how? (How can Agriculture employ youth in Agribusiness)
2. Are there any barriers that you think are hindering meaningful youth engagement in agribusiness? If yes, what are they?
3. How are young women or girls specifically participating in agribusiness?
4. What do you think about engaging youth at different levels of the agriculture value chain?
5. Could there be any reasons why youth are not participating in other levels of the value chain besides production? If yes, what are they?
6. Are there any opportunities that are untapped by the youth in agribusiness? If yes, what are the opportunities?
7. What steps can you take or plan to do to that may result into more youth engagement in agribusiness?
8. What steps can other actors do to empower more youth in agribusiness?
9. What do youth need to do to gainfully participate in your business value chain?
- Quote paper
- Wilber Kakaire (Author), 2018, The Role of Agribusiness Private Sector Actors in Creating Economic Opportunities for Youth in Agriculture. A Case Study of USAID/Feed The Future, Youth Leadership for Agriculture Activity in Eastern Uganda, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/456495
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