How to enable youth to participate in agriculture? A playbook for designing youth-inclusive agriculture programs

Kinyera Justin, Amwoma Janeth, Maru Tufa Digafe, Adera Duncan, Ojha Alina, Harrity Rowan

SECTOR

Agriculture

PROJECT TYPE

Qualitative research

DOI

Location

Uganda, Ethiopia, and Burundi

BEHAVIORAL THEME

Youth employment

OVERVIEW

This playbook, developed through a partnership between One Acre Fund and Busara, provides practical guidance for designing youth-inclusive agricultural programs in sub-Saharan Africa. Drawing on behavioral science research, qualitative fieldwork, and co-design sessions with more than 260 youth, women, and household heads across Uganda, Ethiopia, and Burundi, it challenges the assumption that young people are uninterested in agriculture and instead highlights the structural, social, and behavioral barriers that shape participation. The playbook offers a segmentation framework and a set of evidence-informed interventions to help practitioners design programs that better support youth engagement in agriculture.

Research Questions

Why do many young people choose not to participate in agriculture despite expressing interest in the sector?
What behavioral, social, and structural barriers prevent youth engagement in agricultural programs?
How do these barriers differ across different groups of young people and between young men and women?
What practical interventions can agricultural organizations implement to create more youth-inclusive programs?
How can behavioral science and co-design approaches improve the effectiveness of youth-focused agricultural programming?

Methods

The playbook is based on a multi-stage research and design process that included a review of existing evidence, in-depth qualitative research, co-design workshops, and intervention prototyping. The study engaged more than 260 youth, women, and household heads across Uganda, Ethiopia, and Burundi through interviews and focus group discussions. Findings were analyzed using the Social Ecological Model (SEM) to identify barriers at the individual, interpersonal, community, and structural levels, which then informed the development of eight co-designed intervention concepts.

THEMATIC AREAS

Key Findings

Young people are not disengaged from agriculture because of a lack of interest, but because agriculture is often perceived as slow, uncertain, and less attractive than alternative livelihoods.
Youth are not a homogeneous group and require different program approaches based on their motivations, aspirations, and constraints.
Four distinct youth segments emerged from the research: Reluctant Participants, Income Diversifiers, Committed Innovators, and Passive Helpers.
Barriers to participation exist at multiple levels, including individual, interpersonal, community, and structural factors.
Gender shapes participation across all segments, with young women facing additional barriers related to childcare, household decision-making, and social norms.
Effective agricultural programming requires addressing behavioral and social barriers alongside traditional challenges such as land access, finance, markets, and technical knowledge.
The research identified eight co-designed interventions aimed at reducing key barriers to youth participation and sustained engagement in agriculture.

Implications for Policy or Development

Agricultural programs should move beyond treating youth as a single target group and instead tailor interventions to distinct youth segments.
Increasing youth participation requires addressing both behavioral and structural barriers rather than focusing solely on skills training or awareness campaigns.
Program design should account for factors such as social identity, perceptions of farming, household power dynamics, childcare responsibilities, access to land, finance, and markets.
Gender-responsive approaches are essential to ensure young women can participate meaningfully in agricultural opportunities.
Behavioral science and co-design methods provide valuable tools for understanding youth decision-making and developing contextually relevant solutions.
Development organizations, funders, and policymakers can use the playbook’s segmentation framework and intervention library to design more effective, inclusive, and scalable agricultural programs for young people.