To read this content please select one of the options below:

Rural youths' choice of livelihood strategies and their effect on income poverty and food security in Rwanda

Angelique Kangondo (Rwanda Institute for Conservation Agriculture, Bugesera, Rwanda)
Daniel Wilson Ndyetabula (Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness, Sokoine University of Agriculture, Morogoro, United Republic of Tanzania)
Ntengua Mdoe (Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness, Sokoine University of Agriculture, Morogoro, United Republic of Tanzania)
Gilead Isaac Mlay (Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness, Sokoine University of Agriculture, Morogoro, United Republic of Tanzania) (Department of Trade and Investment, Sokoine University of Agriculture, Morogor, United Republic of Tanzania)

African Journal of Economic and Management Studies

ISSN: 2040-0705

Article publication date: 21 April 2023

Issue publication date: 16 November 2023

125

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims at exploring the choices of livelihood strategies amongst the rural youth and how these choices relate to food security and income poverty.

Design/methodology/approach

The study used data from the 2016/17 wave of Integrated Household Living Condition Survey, with a sample size of 1,050 rural youths. Statistical and econometrics methods including descriptive statistics and the Multinomial Endogenous Treatment Effect (METE) model were used to analyse the data.

Findings

Livelihood choices were grouped into five categories, namely agriculture, non-farm wage employment, agriculture plus non-farm wage, agriculture plus self-employment and agriculture plus non-farm wage plus self-employment. The estimates from METE indicate that the youths' choice of non-farm wage, agriculture plus non-farm wage and agriculture plus self-employment contributes substantially to household food security improvement and poverty reduction. These findings show that agriculture is necessary but not a sufficient livelihood strategy to sustain the rural youth's contribution to youth's household welfare. The rural youth will pursue agriculture as a reliable source of livelihood not only for food self-sufficiency, but also for ensuring adequate return to labour.

Originality/value

This paper extends single choice analysis to multiple choices impact analysis, which has the advantage of accounting for selection bias due to both observed and unobserved heterogeneity. This paper assesses the differential impact of the choice of single as well as multiple livelihood strategies.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

This article is part of the thesis submitted to Sokoine University of Agriculture for an award of PhD Agricultural Economics. Authors are grateful to anonymous reviewers’ valuable comments that improved the manuscript. The acknowledgments are also due to African Economic Research Consortium (AERC) and Programme Accompanying Research and Innovation (PARI) for financial support.

Citation

Kangondo, A., Ndyetabula, D.W., Mdoe, N. and Mlay, G.I. (2023), "Rural youths' choice of livelihood strategies and their effect on income poverty and food security in Rwanda", African Journal of Economic and Management Studies, Vol. 14 No. 4, pp. 643-662. https://doi.org/10.1108/AJEMS-05-2022-0190

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited

Related articles