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In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), entrepreneurship in the agriculture sector remains for youth a key pillar for income creation. However, few are attracted by agribusiness despite stakeholders’ efforts toward engaging youth in agriculture. Therefore, this study examines the relationship between entrepreneurial potential characteristics and youth desirability to start an enterprise in agriculture among 514 young people in Eastern DRC. This study revealed that youth in South Kivu have different entrepreneurship potential features and agribusiness desirability levels according to their gender and living area. Hence, the youth’s agribusiness desirability is motivated by an awareness of emerging agripreneurial activities, land ownership, parent involvement in farming activities as a role model, perceived agribusiness as an employment source, management-organizing and opportunistic competencies, market analysis, negotiating, and planning skills. Therefore, efforts to attract youth into agribusiness should focus on the use of media, the creation of awareness of available agribusiness initiatives in their area, and the setup of land policy. This is in addition to putting in place capacity-building programs on entrepreneurial and business skills through incubators, and the formalization of youth agribusiness groups that foster capitalizing experiences between new and accelerated agripreneurial enterprises, with the support of parents and financial institutions, focusing on gender sensitivity, in both rural and urban areas.

The youth unemployment situation is an essential component of the current agricultural policy agenda of the Federal Government of Nigeria. Deep-rooted debates on finding a lasting solution to this problem using agriculture have been targeted as one of the panaceas. Using data from 207 systematically selected rice-producing households, this study employed the Propensity Score Matching method (PSM) and the Inverse Probability Weighted Regression Adjustment method (IPWRA) to examine the effect of intensive youth participation in agriculture on productivity and household revenue in Nigeria. We found that the key factors influencing the decisions of youth to participate in agriculture intensively include the number of years of farming experience, access to credit, membership in social groups, income, and land access. The PSM results indicate that rice productivity could increase by 1088.78 kg/ha if youth decide to intensively participate in agriculture. The IPWRA results show a positive and significant impact of intensive youth participation in agriculture on productivity and revenue. Therefore, our results suggest that efforts by the government and stakeholders towards encouraging flexible accessibility to credit (low-interest and easy repayment) and land without collateral to young people could enhance their participation in intensive agriculture and could subsequently boost productivity and household revenue.

With data from 683 systematically selected households, the study employed the Heckman two-stage model and the propensity score matching method (PSM) to examine the impact of youth participation in agriculture as a primary occupation on income and poverty in Nigeria. The results indicate that the gender of the youth and their determination to stay in agriculture significantly increases the probability that youth will participate in agriculture as a primary occupation. In addition, youth participation in agriculture as a main occupation contributes significantly to per capita household income and has the likelihood to reduce poverty by 17%. The daily wage rate of hired labor and the total farmland owned are the variables that positively explained the per capita income. Poverty was reduced by market access, having agriculture as a primary occupation, income from agricultural production, the total monetary value of all the household assets, determination to remain in agriculture, and the square of the respondents’ age. These results imply that creating employment for youth by engaging them in agriculture as a full-time occupation can increase their income and reduce poverty. However, the promotion of other secondary occupations, land, and market access is also vital.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether agribusiness could be competitive compared to non-agribusiness employment opportunities in terms of technical efficiency and profitability. We used data collected on all seven operating cassava community processing centers (CCPCs) and 150 comparable non-agribusiness enterprises in South Kivu province. A Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), as well as cost–benefit ratios and net monthly revenue, were used to examine technical efficiency and profitability. Our results showed that agribusiness was more competitive than non-agribusiness in terms of technical efficiency and profitability. The cost–benefit ratio shows that every dollar invested in agribusiness earns investors US $2.8, while it earns investors in non-agribusiness US $2.1. Moreover, technical efficiency increases significantly with agribusiness. These results show that agribusiness can compete with other non-agribusiness activities, and it remains a solution to youth unemployment in the region.

Although the agri-food sector has a huge potential to offer attractive employment opportunities for Africa’s burgeoning youth, a negative perception of agriculture persists among Cameroonian youths, such as in many other African countries. The paper assesses the determinants of university students’ choices and preferences for agricultural sub-sector engagement in Cameroon. A multistage random sampling technique was used to select 550 students from two state universities. We used the SWOT analysis to evaluate students’ perceptions of challenges and opportunities within the agricultural sector in Cameroon, the binomial probit analysis to assess the determinants of students’ choices of agriculture as a university major, and an ordered probit analysis to evaluate the determinants of students’ preferences of agricultural sub-sector engagement. Findings reveal that choice of agriculture as a university major is significantly determined by sex, pre-university farming experience, pre-university academic background, mother’s level of education, and household income. Likewise, preference of agricultural sub-sector engagement is significantly determined by the student’s level of study and location of a childhood home. Improving the attractiveness of, and working conditions in, the agricultural sector could increase youth engagement in agribusiness and rural economic activities. The results also reinforce the need to increase household income in Cameroon, as this could lift families out of poverty and offer them more economic opportunities. Policies that regulate levels of education can equally be used to allocate human resources into different agricultural sub-sectors, subject to felt needs.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is a country with a high agricultural productivity potential, however, the agribusiness sector remains unattractive to youths. This study examined the extent to which perceived social norms and psychological capital affect youths’ intentions to pursue agribusiness opportunities in the Eastern DRC. Data was collected on a sample of 600 youths. We applied Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS−SEM) in order to examine the relationship between the variables. The findings indicated that most of the youths did not select agribusiness as their top career choice. The intention to engage in agribusiness activities was significantly higher among the youths who perceived that agribusiness was socially valued and supported. Psychological capital significantly and positively affects youths’ agripreneurial intention. The findings contribute to the underlying Theory of Planned Behavior by supporting a positive mediation role of psychological capital—and the moderating roles of educational level, gender, access to land, and location—on the relationship between perceived social norms and agripreneurial intention. The paper concludes that the provision of funds is not enough to promote youth agripreneurship in an environment in which agricultural-related social norms, youths’ psychological capital, gender, access to land, educational level, and location (rural versus urban) are not thoroughly considered.

Poverty persists in many developing countries, including Nigeria, owing to inadequate infrastructure, unemployment, or poor working conditions, among other factors. Youth poverty and vulnerability to poverty have been identified to prevalent among the young population. Using an endogenous switching probit regression approach, in this study, we evaluated the impacts of youth participation in agribusiness programs (YIAPs) on poverty and vulnerability to poverty in Nigeria. Our findings revealed that some demographic and institutional factors significantly influence poverty and vulnerability to poverty among youth. The impact estimates indicate that participation in an agribusiness program has a significant positive effect on poverty reduction among youth. Moreover, there would have been about a 28% reduction in exposure to future poverty for non-participants had they participated in a YIAP. Our results suggest that intervention programs, such as YIAPs, that focus on skill acquisition and youth empowerment should be strengthened and scaled-up in order to improve youth welfare and subsequently reduce/eradicate poverty and vulnerability to poverty among youth.

The increasing rate of youth unemployment in Africa, particularly in Nigeria, remains among the challenges to social and economic stability. Accordingly, the Nigerian government implemented several interventions, including the Youth-in-Agribusiness (YIA) program to reduce youth unemployment. However, the effect of these programs on gainful employment creation is yet to be documented. Therefore, this study examined the impact of the YIA program on creating gainful employment among the youth. Multistage random sampling was used to obtain cross-sectional data from 668 youth in Southwestern Nigeria. Propensity score matching and endogenous switching probit techniques were used for the estimations. Results indicated that variables such as educational attainment, access to training, non-agricultural activity, membership in a youth organization, access to credit, productive resources, and youth location were significant and positively influenced youth decision to participate in the YIA program. Furthermore, participation in the YIA program has a significant positive impact on gainful employment among the youth. Therefore, the study recommends that strengthening social capital such as youth organization, credit scheme (financed by private and government), vocational training, and educational system is vital in enhancing participation in the YIA program and eventually gainful employment of youth.

The monthly averaged data time series of temperatures and rainfall without interruption of Conakry Airport (9.34&deg, N 13.37&deg, W, Guinea) from 1960 to 2016 were used. Inter-annual and annual changes in temperature and rainfall were investigated. Then, different models: Mann-Kendall Test, Multi-Linear-Regression analysis, Theil-Sen&rsquo, s slope estimates and wavelet analysis where used for trend analysis and the dependency with these climate forcings. Results showed an increase in temperature with semi-annual and annual cycles. A sharp and abrupt rise in the temperature in 1998 was found. The results of study have shown increasing trends for temperature (about 0.21&deg, /year). A decrease in rainfall (about &minus, 8.14 mm/year) is found since the end of 1960s and annual cycle with a maximum value of about 1118.3 mm recorded in August in average. The coherence between the two parameters and climate indices: El Ni&ntilde, o 3.4, Atlantic Meridional Mode, Tropical Northern Atlantic and Atlantic Ni&ntilde, o, were investigated. Thus, there is a clear need for increased and integrated research efforts in climate parameters variations to improve knowledge in climate change.

Engaging rural youth in agribusiness has become an important strategy to create employment opportunities in Africa. To this end, governments and development partners have implemented various interventions that facilitate youth engagement in agribusiness for several years. However, there is a dearth of evidence on what worked and what did not work well, making it difficult to inform evidence-based policy making. In an effort to fill this knowledge gap, a comprehensive literature review of the outcomes of interventions related to youth engagement in agribusiness was conducted using a deductive coding approach. Results showed that the interventions implemented by governments and development partners across Africa have succeeded in producing favorable outcomes despite some limitations. Interventions that integrate capacity development, financial support for startups, and continuous mentorship on the technical and financial aspects of youth-run agribusiness projects proved successful in enhancing youth engagement in agribusiness. This suggests that the design and implementation of future interventions should be based on an integrated approach that considers diversity of youths’ aspirations and shared capabilities, interests, expectations, as well as challenges associated with access to resources and participation in collective action. The design of future interventions should also be built on strong partnerships among rural communities, academia, research, and private sector for increased impact on livelihood improvements.