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Invited paper presented at the 6th African Conference of Agricultural Economists, September 23-26, 2019, Abuja, Nigeria Copyright 2019 by [authors]. All rights reserved. Readers may make verbatim copies of this document for non-commercial purposes by any means, provided that this copyright notice appears on all such copies. Impact of Agricultural Programs on Youth Agripreneurship Performance in Nigeria: The case of Fadama GUYS Training Program 1Adeyanju, D.F.*, 1Mburu, J., 2Mignouna, D. 1Department of Agricultural Economics, College of Agriculture and Veterinary Science, University of Nairobi, Kenya 2International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Ibadan, Nigeria. Email: [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Corresponding Author: [email protected] Abstract Youth unemployment has become a global challenge. This is particularly serious in countries with high population such as Nigeria. Studies have shown that the agricultural sector has the capacity to employ over 70 per cent of the entire Nigeria population which implies that there are lots of unexplored opportunities in the sector. Thus, both government and private organizations have come to support youth in agribusiness by organizing youth-specific training programs in the field. In as much as there is a remarkable number of existing agricultural programs designed for youths across the country, there are few empirical proof on the impact such programs have on their agripreneurship performance. For this reason, this study empirically investigated the impact of agricultural programs on youth agripreneurship performance taking the case of Fadama Graduate Unemployed Youth and Women Support (GUYS) program. The study used both primary and secondary data. A total of 977 respondents comprising of both participants and non- participants were sampled across three states in Nigeria. Data were analysed using Propensity Score Matching method. The findings showed a significant, positive and robust impact of the program on youth agripreneurship performance as performance improved by up to 27 percent. Keywords: Youth unemployment, Youth Entrepreneurship, Agripreneurship, Agribusiness Training 1.0 Introduction Youth bulge has become a controversial debate in Africa. While a school of thought see it as an asset which could contribute immensely to economic growth and development, another see it as a ‘time-ticking bomb’ which might explode sooner than expected. The African Economic Outlook Report (2017) stated that about 60 to 70 percent of the entire African population are below 30 years of age. Also, according to UN Report (2015), about 230 million people are aged between 15 and 24 years, constituting close to 35 percent of the entire population. The same report stated that those aged between 25 to 34 years accounts for about 27 percent of the population. The short-term implication of this is that, countries with high population such as Nigeria cannot create enough job opportunities in the non-agricultural sector for young women and men (Muthomi, 2017) which has led to high rate of youth unemployment in the country. These unemployment and underemployment issues have created a wide economic gap between the Nigerian citizens which is particularly intense in the rural areas (Narendran & Ranganathan, 2015; Nwibo, Mbam, & Biam, 2016). According to the International Labour Organisation (2017), about 70 percent of young people in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) live in the rural areas which is characterized by high levels of poverty, poor infrastructural development, food and nutrition insecurity and a number of other tough economic conditions. These conditions constrain young people from accessing basic amenities, timely information as well as quality education and skill development opportunities which could aid them in changing both their economic and social status. Also, the labour markets in many SSA countries are either dysfunctional or skewed against the youths which has resulted in many young people, particularly in the rural areas, thriving on paltry sources of livelihoods (Lahiff, 1997). No wonder poverty remains prevalence even among the employed ones. The situation is similar in all African countries. One great challenge that Nigeria, like most African countries continue to struggle with is youth unemployment and its subsequent effect on labour output and the society (Nyabam, Tarawali, & Ijie, 2018), which does not seem to have a good reflection on the country. A large number of young people graduate from higher institutions yearly with very little hope of getting a well-paid job (Inegbenebor & Ogunrin, 2011). This is because labour supply exceeds its demand particularly, in the formal sector as a result of high population. Thus, the informal sector has become an alternative source of sustainable employment for a large proportion of the population. According to Nyabam, et al. (2018), in comparison to the formal sector, the informal sector is increasingly becoming the biggest creator of job opportunities for many people. Nyabam, et al. (2018) suggested that rather than focusing on how to increase white-collar jobs as a strategy to address youth unemployment, more effort should be directed at how to develop youth entrepreneurship. To achieve this, the Agriculture sector has been found to be the most reliable, promising and sustainable sector since it holds numerous economic opportunities as well as the capacity to employ more than 70 percent of the entire population. On this note, agripreneurship is increasingly being adopted as a significant and valuable means to create job opportunities, improve the livelihoods and facilitate the economic independence of young people. According to Bairwa, Lakra, Kushwaha, Meena, & Kumar (2014), Agripreneurship holds numerous potential which can contribute to a range of economic and social development which includes employment and income generation, poverty alleviation and improvements in health, nutrition, health as well as food security. In recent times, many stakeholders including development partners have come to support youth agripreneurship by coming up with several programs to help prospective agripreneurs acquire the required skills and capabilities to successfully run an agribusiness enterprise. An example of such programs is YCAD in Ekiti State, which was truncated shortly after the pioneering administration left. Many youths were trained under this program but, till date, no one can neither tell the impact of the intervention on the participants nor why the program ended the way it did, since no research has concentrated on this area. The implication of this is that the institutions offering these programs cannot tell if at all they make a difference afterwards or not. It is for this reason that more comprehensive research and tangible data on youth agricultural programs become inevitable, especially as this relates to different entrepreneurial framework and new business establishment. Most studies on entrepreneurial training programs are not sector specific. For instance, Karanja (2014) conducted an aggregated similar study, however he focused on self-employed youths. Also, Awogbenle & Iwuamadi, (2010); Chidiebere et al. (2014) explained the significance of education/training in fostering entrepreneurship development. However, the authors failed to provide empirical evidence to back this up. This study therefore addressed this research gap by exploring the impact of agricultural programs on agripreneurship performance thereby giving a more comprehensive and clearer picture of subject and helping to narrow the knowledge gap in the area. As part of IITA research recommendations on youth engagement in agribusiness, this study was selected to fill the research gap of lack of evidence to show the impact of training programs on youth agripreneurship. 1.1 Fadama GUYS program The Fadama GUYS program is one of the existing support programs specifically designed for unemployed youths. The program targets young people between the ages of 18-35years. It was introduced in 2017 with the major objective of empowering youths and motivating them to have profitable careers in agribusiness. This is done through an intensive training program which covers a wide range of agribusiness scope, ranging from Crop and Animal production, marketing, processing, financial management as well as risk management. It was funded under a tri-partite agreement between the World Bank, federal government and the state government. A total of 23 states was selected for the program which cuts across all the regions in Nigeria and about 300 unemployed youths were trained in each state. 2.0 Materials and Method The study was conducted in three states across Nigeria between January and March 2019. These include Abia, Ekiti and Kebbi States representing the South-eastern, South-western and North- western regions respectively. Abia state occupies a total land area of about 4,900 sq km. The estimated population as of 2016 was about 3,699,168 people (National Bureau of Statistics, 2011). Ekiti state is mainly an upland zone with a total land area of about 5,435 sq km. As of 2006, the state had a population of 2,398,957 people (National Bureau of Statistics, 2011) of which more than 75 percent were actively engaged in Agriculture. Kebbi state is located in the north-western part of Nigeria with a total land area of about 36,985 km sq out of which 12,600 km sq is cultivated for agricultural purposes. According to the National Bureau of