Youths’ aspirations and perceptions towards agricultural participation: a case of two Free State regions
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Date
2020-08
Authors
August, Moatlhodi M.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of the Free State
Abstract
Youth unemployment, food insecurity, and poverty are some of the major problems facing countries around the world, and South Africa is no exception. The aforementioned challenges can be reduced through improved agricultural participation by the youth. The main aim of this study is to explore the influence of the youths’ aspirations and perceptions towards participation in agriculture. This was achieved through two sub objectives; the first objective was to measure the youths’ aspirations and perceptions towards participation in agriculture and the second sub objective was to determine the influence of livelihood assets, aspirations and perceptions towards agricultural participation. This study employed a stratified random sampling method, and 178 youth respondents between the ages of 18 and 36 were interviewed through a structured questionnaire. Out of the total sample size, 49 % of the youth participated in agriculture and 51 % did not participate in agriculture. To achieve the first sub objective, a Principal component analysis was used to generate two indexes (aspiration index and perception index) in SPSS to measure the youths’ perceptions and aspirations towards agriculture and related activities. The results show low scores regarding perceptions for economic motivation, agricultural value chain and the attractiveness of agriculture and rainfed farming as a livelihood strategy, while the perceptions on interest and inclusiveness showed higher scores, signifying better perception with regard to the inclusiveness and interest in agriculture. To achieve the second objective, a binary logistic model was used to determine the influence of the Sustainable Livelihood Assets (SLA) and perceptions and aspirations on agricultural participation. A total of 31 variables were included in the binary logistic model, which consisted of: total number of household, age, gender, marital status, number of years of experience in farming or agriculture-related activities, access to agricultural training, land access, livestock ownership, grant use for agricultural inputs, access to savings, access to savings, co-operative membership, youth club/group membership, social media group membership, extension contact, full-time farmer, employed, self-employed, student, matric, grade 11 or less, degree/diploma and higher, market access, household income, and aspIndex and percptIndex (interest in agriculture and attractiveness of agriculture). Eleven (11) out of 31 predictor variables came out as significant, and five were positive (number of years of experience in farming or agriculture-related activities, employed, self-employed, interest in agriculture, and attractiveness of agriculture) which indicate a positive association with the likelihood of agricultural participation. The other six variables (age, land access, grant use for agricultural inputs, access to savings, extension contact, and market access) were negative, which indicates the decrease in the likelihood of agricultural participation. The study found that the youth do take part in smallholder farming and other agriculture-related activities. However, the youth still have generally low aspirations and poor perceptions towards agriculture and therefore, efforts needs to be made to invest in improving the youth perceptions and aspirations. Access to resources is fundamental for agricultural participation, as better access to productive resources has the potential to enhance youth participation in agriculture. It is therefore important that the government pays more attention to resource allocation and better strategies in terms of resource provision. Market access, training, extension support, and government support are lacking in QwaQwa and Thaba ‘Nchu. It is important that the government improves youth access to these important resources.
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Keywords
Dissertation (M.Agric. (Agricultural Economics))--University of the Free State, 2020, Agriculture, Youth, Perceptions, Aspirations, Participation, Farming