Determinants of Access to and Ownership of Farming Land Among Rural Youths in Central Region of Malawi

Moses Chitete ,Wisdom Richard Mgomezulu ,Abdi-Khalil Edriss

doi:10.7176/jesd/10-12-15

Abstract

Malawi’s economy is highly dependent on agriculture of which 80 percent of those involved in agriculture live in rural areas. On top of that, the highest population of the country consist of the youth in the age category 15 to 39 years. However, the youth still remains the age category in the country with poor access to productive assets. The study analyzed factors affecting rural youth’s access and ownership of farming land and employed an Independent Double Hurdle approach. Results showed that among the socioeconomic and institutional factors hypothesized to affect access and ownership of land; age, gender, household size, education level, farm input coupon access and household income positively influenced access to and ownership of land at 1 percent level of statistical significance (P<0.01). The study recommends introducing programs that improves the education levels and incomes of rural youths in order to improve their access and ownership of farming land. The study again recommends empowering rural youthful women in order to improve their ownership of farming land. Keywords: Access, Land, Rural, Youth, Malaw DOI : 10.7176/JESD/10-12-15 Publication date :June 30 th 2019

Highlights

IntroductionYouth unemployment has in recent times become a serious macroeconomic problem
Worldwide, youth unemployment has in recent times become a serious macroeconomic problem
3 Results and Discussion 3.1 Descriptive Statistics Before estimating the determinants of access to and ownership of farming land among the rural youth in central region of Malawi, descriptive characteristics of the sampled youth were computed to get a picture of the sample

Summary

Introduction

Youth unemployment has in recent times become a serious macroeconomic problem. It is a serious problem in developing countries where many youths are concentrated in rural areas, with farming being a major livelihood source. Involving youth in pursuit of productive economic activity is of great importance in poverty reduction, especially in developing countries. The study isolated lack of adequate land for farming as one of the major problems that prevented youth participation in agriculture. One of the consequences of lack of land for farming is rural-urban migration, a thing that results in urban poverty and social instability especially when youth do not have anything to do in the urban areas where they migrate

Methods

Results

Conclusion