Exploring the nexus between non-agricultural employment and rural youth welfare in Nigeria

The rural youth population in Nigeria encounters one of the most vulnerable economic situations, due to limited opportunities. While most rural youth engage solely in farming for sustenance, others explore non-agricultural activities as an additional income source. However, there is a deficiency of literature regarding the nexus between rural youth farm households’ welfare and participation in non-agricultural employment. This study utilizes cross-sectional data from 668 rural youth farm households in Nigeria to investigate the welfare (proxied by total household income, agribusiness income and consumption expenditure per capita) impact of non-agricultural employment. Potential estimation biases were corrected by employing the instrumental variable (two-stage least square and endogenous treatment) regression econometric method to analyze the data. The results reveal that factors such as education, household size, membership in youth forums, accessibility to information and credit influence youth engagement in non-agricultural employment. The impact estimates show that non-agricultural employment significantly increases rural youth’s welfare. Therefore, the policy framework on rural development could be directed towards encouraging and providing opportunities via non-agricultural employment to youth. These could, in turn, provide an avenue to upscale youth agribusinesses and improve the general household welfare.