JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION MANAGEMENT Vol. XXI January - June 2020 No. 1 National Institute of Agricultural Extension Management Hyderabad Views expressed in the articles are of the authors and not necessarily of the Institute. - Editor JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION MANAGEMENT Vol. XXI January - June 2020 No. 1 CONTENT 1. Determinants of rural youth unemployment in Northwest Ethiopia 1 Yitateku Adugna Agemas and Beneberu Assefa Wondimagegnhu 2. Influence of Selected Factors on Participation of Rural Youth 19 in Agriculture in Balaka District, Malawi Alfred D. B. Tsitsi, Justus M. Ombati and Stephen W. Maina 3. Assessment of Farmers' Attitude and Experience on Indigenous 39 Agroforestry Practices in Ethiopia: The Case of Dibate District, Benishangul Gumuz Regional State Bilisuma Hailu Kuma 4. Hybrid Rice Seed Production in Khammam district of Telangana State: 73 A Critical Analysis M. Venkataramulu, J. Hemantha Kumar and Venu Prasad H D 5. Significance of Agro Textiles in Crop Production 85 Prerna Kapila and B S Dhillon 6. Strategies for Promoting Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) in India 93 G. Jaya, S.B. Ramya Lakshmi, K.C. Gummagolmath and R.S. Bhawar 7. Factors Influencing Crop Diversification in Tirunelveli District of Tamil Nadu 115 Mohammed Ghouse L and S. Nazreen Hassan 8. Stakeholders' Integration in Sorghum and Sesame Seed Supply System. 123 The Case of West Gondar Zone, Amhara Region, Ethiopia Birhanu Melesse, Tewodros Getnet, Yenesew Sewnet and Beyene Derso 9. Access and Utilization of Agricultural Extension Services among Rural 137 Ethiopian women Birhanu Melesse 10. Indigenous Technical Knowledge of Tribal Farmers about Pest Management 153 in Crop Production P.L.Manohari and Ratan R.P.S Determinantes of Rural Youth Unemployment in Northwest Ethiopia Yitateku Adugna Agemas1 and Beneberu Assefa Wondimagegnhu2 Abstract Youth unemployment is one of the serious challenges facing Ethiopia. It has createdseveral economic and social crises in the country. The problem is high in rural areas in general andthe Yilmanadensadistrict in particular. However, the determinants of youth unemployment in the district are not yet assessed. In light of this problem, the main objective of this study is to identify and examine the determinants of youth unemployment. To realize the specified objective, primary and secondary data sources were used. Primary data were collected employing focus group discussions and semi-structured questionnairesgathered from 197 youths randomly selected in 3villages/kebeles of Yilmanadensa district.Descriptive statistics,chi-square tests, and binary logistic regression were used to analyze data. The study found that 30.96% of the respondents were unemployed while 69.04% of them were employed at the time of the survey. The binary logit model results show that variables such as work experience, skill mismatch, household income, infrastructure, social network, membership toa cooperative and eligibility of the youth for funding were identified as positively and significantlyinfluence the employment status of the rural youth.On the contrary, access to saving and credit services were found to negatively and significantlyinfluence the rural youth employment in Yilmanadensa district. The findings show that the government and other development stakeholders shouldbuild the capacity ofthe rural youth to make them competent in the labor market. They should also address the problem of infrastructures such as access to road, electric power and vocational schools to improve the skill of the rural youth and strengthen their social networks. Keywords: Youth, Unemployment, Rural Youth Unemployment, Ethiopia 1 Lecturer, Department of Rural Development and Agricultural Extension, Mekdela Amba University, Ethiopia Corresponding Author Email : [email protected] 2 Associate Professor, Department of Rural Development and Agricultural Extension, Bahir Dar University, Ethiopia Received Date: 22-11-2019 Accepted Date: 23-02-2021 2 Yitateku Adugna Agemas and Beneberu Assefa Wondimagegnhu Introduction Youth are driving forces of social, economic and political development in all countries, and the ability of the youth to engage in development activities has an influence on the economy (Nganwa, et al 2015). Countries, organizations, nations, NGOs and civic affiliations have different age categorizationsfordefining the youth based on several factors. For example in Ghana, Tanzania, and South Africa age is defined between 15 and 35 years whereas Nigeria and Swaziland define it between 12 and 30 years. Botswana defines it between 14 and 25 years (Gyimah-brempong and Kimenyi, 2013). The United Nations (UN) and WHO defines the age of the youth as between 15 to 24 and 10 to 24, respectively. In Ethiopia, the age of youth lies between 15 to 29 years(MYSC, 2004). This has historically been used to capture the duration of transition between formative years and complete maturity. One factor of this transition concerns the movement from education to employment (ILO, 2017). Unemployment is one of the major challenges facing today's world (Geest, 2010). Unemployed young people are defined as individuals seeking whether full time or part- time employment and available to start work (Skattebol et al., 2015). The latest ILO estimates put the global youth unemployment rate for 2016 at 13.0 %, just below the crisis top of 13.1 % in 2011 and 2010. However, rising again to 13.1 % in 2017 and 2018. In developing countries, the unemployment rate among youth is expected to remain stable at 9.5 percent in 2017, while in emerging countries it is expected to rise to 13.8 %. The youth unemployment rate is predicted to fall in developed countries, declining from 14.0 % in 2016 to 13.4 % in 2017(ILO, 2017). In Ethiopia, the unemployed population in the country is 1,981,165 with an unemployment rate of 4.5 %. This means nearly 5 persons are unemployed out of 100 economically active persons (CSA, 2014).In Ethiopia, several factors contribute to causes of youth unemployment such as negative financial performance, low education level, low entrepreneurship,mismatch skill and low awareness among the youth (Nayak, 2014). In rural areas of Ethiopia, several negative effects of youth unemployment like starvation of the youth and their family, serious social problems, affect the country's economy and make youth vulnerable to prostitution, hopelessness in education and joining armed groups rebelling against the government. This has taken the country to the violent circle of civil war and instability (HiruyWubie, 2012). Journal of Agricultural Extension Management Vol. XXI No. (1) 2020 Determinantes of Rural Youth Unemployment in Northwest Ethiopia 3 Most studies done in the country focus more on urban youth unemployment.Therefore, the research contributes to identifying the determinants of rural youth unemployment takingYilmanadensa district ofNorthwest Ethiopia as a case study. The results provide information for designing relevant programs and strategies to reduce the problem of youth unemployment in the study area. Materials and Methods Description of the Study Area The study was conducted in Yilmanadensa district, which is found in the Amhara region, Northwest Ethiopia. It is situated about 42 km from the regionalcity, Bahirdar. The district is bounded by 35 kebeles/villages.Agriculture is the backbone of the community's livelihoods in thedistrict, which is dominated by mixed farming (both cropsand livestock production). The area is suitable for production of improved and high market value crops. Methods of Sampling and Data collection The study used a cross-sectional study design. The target population consists of youth agedbetween 15 and 29 years at the time of the survey, and who reside in the district.Quantitative and qualitative data were collected from primary and secondary sources. The primary data was gathered through semi-structured questionnaires whereas secondary data werecollected from published and unpublished documents Probability and non-probability sampling techniques were used. At the first stage,Yilmanadensadistrict was purposely selected, and in the second stage, three kebeles were selected out of 35 kebeles/villages (i.e.Danbasho, Debrermewi, and Goshiye) purposely.This is because thedistrict youth officein 2018 reported that theses kebeles/villages have the highest youth unemployment rates. In the third stage, sample youth were selected from the sample kebeles using systematic random sampling technique from the total number of youth in the three villages.The total Population in three kebeles is 9560, whereas 5927 of them are the youth between 15-29 years. There are several approaches to determine the sample. This study applied the simplified formula provide by Yamane (1967) to determine the sample size. Journal of Agricultural Extension Management Vol. XXI No. (1) 2020 4 Yitateku Adugna Agemas and Beneberu Assefa Wondimagegnhu N The formula is given as: n 1() N e 2 Where n is the representative sample size, N is the total youth population, and e is the desired level of precision. For a 93% confidence level, the researchers have selected the representative sample of: 5927 n 197 1 5927 0.07 2 Moreover, the researchers applied the proportional probabilistic sampling technique and have selected 197 youths from Debremewikebele(73 respondents), from Danbashokebele(57) and 66 respondents from Goshiyekebele. Method of Data Analysis Descriptive and econometric analyses have been employed to meet the main objective of the study. Descriptive