Building capacity of rural youth and extension workers in agriculture as a business: evidence from a field experiment in Malawi

This thesis examines the effects of agri-business entrepreneurship training on the business skills, entrepreneurial propensity, and expected wages of youth in rural Malawi. Historically, the role of youth in agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa has been severely limited due to a variety of political, social, and economic factors. In general, youth have limited access to land, capital, political influence, and agricultural inputs, which are often controlled by governments, private industry, or village elders. This project implemented a learning program in the East Lilongwe district testing the effects of a 10 week agricultural entrepreneurship course that attempted to equip youth with the skills necessary to start a low cost business. Participants were selected in groups at the village level, and by completion of the course expected to have formed a semi-formal business plan. Increasing rural youth’s entrepreneurial knowledge and expectations about the viability and wages of agricultural employment will be a crucial factor in incentivizing extension systems to adopt sustainable training practices as a means of advisory service.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.S.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Agricultural & Applied Econ

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2017

Author dc:creator

• Highfill, Ryan Joseph

Contributors dc:contributor

• McNamara, Paul E.
• Ellison, Brenna
• Crost, Benjamin

• Agribusiness
• Extension
• Malawi

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2017 Ryan Highfill

Language dc:language

eng

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/98168

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/98168