Engagement of Out of School Youth in Decision Making During Showcasing of Success Stories by Young Agripreneurs and Its Effect on Implementation of Agricultural Programmes

Abstract

Participation of out of school youth in decision making on showcasing success stories by young agripreneurs would act as motivation for them to increase implementation of agricultural programmes for self reliance. However, there is problem of low participation of out of school youth in decision making on showcasing success by young agripreneurs. Out of school youths who have completed secondary school agriculture are scantly exposed in agripreneurship. It is expected that the gap in knowledge and skills would be filled by the youth participating in showcasing success events by young agripreneurs. This research was conducted to establish the influence of participation of out of school youth in decision-making on showcasing success stories by young agripreneurs on implementation of agricultural programmes. The investigation was conducted in three categories of secondary schools offering agriculture subject, spread in five agro-ecological zones typical of Kenyan farm types, and found in Kisii and Nyamira counties region. Cross-sectional survey design was used. Out of school youth are those who studied agriculture subject and are registered with youth groups within their localities engaged in agricultural activities for creation of livelihoods. Stratified, purposive, and simple random sampling procedures were used to select a sample size of 160 out of school youth. Data was collected using questionnaires, analyzed by descriptive and inferential statistics at probability level of 0.05 using SPSS version 21. Results show that gender of out of school youth does not make a significant difference in the level of participation in decision making on showcasing events by young agripreneurs. Youth out of school are in concurrence that strategies 5, 4, 3 and 6 are more significantly very important than the rest in increasing their participation in decision making during showcasing success stories by young agripreneurs. Strategy 5 is identified as outstanding out of the four and advocates for the formation of agribusiness clubs at community level where successful agripreneurs can mentor the out of school youth, share ideas, experiences and  showcase their successes. There is a positive significant linear correlation between level of participation in decision making during showcasing of success stories by young agripreneurs and the level of implementation of agricultural programmes by youth out of school (R= 0.438762, p = 0.00). These findings will be useful in addressing issues of out of school youth on participation in decision making during showcasing success stories by young agripreneurs to prompt them implement agricultural programmes for independence.