Young people\u2019s perspectives on farming in Ghana: a Q study

James Sumberg,Nana Akua Anyidoho,Justin Flynn,Thomas Yeboah

doi:10.1007/s12571-016-0646-y

James Sumberg, Nana Akua Anyidoho + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1007/s12571-016-0646-y

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Abstract

An emerging orthodoxy suggests that agriculture is the key to addressing the youth employment challenge in Africa. The analysis that informs this orthodoxy identifies a number of persistent barriers to increased productivity; and the programmes that work to get young people engaged with agriculture make assumptions about the young people’s interests and behaviours. In this paper we report results from a study with secondary students in Ghana using Q Methodology. The objective was to determine to what degree the students’ perspectives were aligned with the main tenants of the emerging orthodoxy. Results show that different perspectives on the two questions (What explains young people’s attitude toward farming? What should be done about young people and farming?) can be identified. There are a number of points of convergence between the students’ perspectives and the new orthodoxy. However, two important points of divergence were also identified, and the impications of these are discussed.

Highlights

An emerging orthodoxy among policy makers and development professionals is that the agricultural sector can provide a key to the problem of youth unemployment and underemployment in Africa (Brooks et al 2012; FAO et al 2014; MasterCard Foundation 2015; Filmer and Fox 2014)
In this paper we report the perspectives of students in two high schools in rural Ghana on two closely related research questions: (1) What explains young people’s attitude toward farming? and (2) What should be done about rural young people and farming? We submit that the perspectives of young people on these questions are of considerable importance in the light of the attention currently being given to agriculture and youth employment
Our results demonstrate that different explanations about young people’s attitude to farming and what should be done about it can be identified, even among a relatively circumscribed group of secondary school students

Summary

Introduction

An emerging orthodoxy among policy makers and development professionals is that the agricultural sector can provide a key to the problem of youth unemployment and underemployment in Africa (Brooks et al 2012; FAO et al 2014; MasterCard Foundation 2015; Filmer and Fox 2014). On the other side of the disjuncture are the development programmes that commonly include interventions like awareness raising, entrepreneurship and business skills training, the formation of farmer organisations, integration into contract farming models, and promotion of savings and micro-credit. The mismatch between these interventions and the height of the barriers identified by Filmer and Fox is stark

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