YOUTH EMPOWERMENT THROUGH VEGETABLE FARMING: A SOCIO-ECONOMIC STUDY IN DODOMA CITY, TANZANIA

In recent years there has been a growing literature on youth and livelihood opportunities in agriculture. However, the extent to which such engagement in agriculture improves the livelihood of youth has hardly attracted scholarly attention. Consequently, a convergent parallel mixed method design was adopted to examine the contribution of vegetable farming to livelihood outcomes among the youth. A two-stage sampling technique was used to select 250 respondents for the study. A checklist was used to gather qualitative data while structured questionnaire was used to gather quantitative data. Five livelihood indicators were used to construct the index. Each livelihood indicator was measured by three sub-indicators which were measured in a 3-point Likert scale (low, medium and high livelihood outcomes) Ordinal logistic regression model (OLRM) was employed to determine the chances of the youths’ livelihood outcome levels being high due to vegetable farming. More than half (58%) of the respondents had attained high level of livelihood outcomes. Interestingly, a weak impact of vegetable farming was noted in improved human and social capital in such a way that improvement in the livelihoods can only be achieved by cultivating more land. Results from OLRM revealed that land size, vegetable variety and education were the most significant (p≤ 0.05) predictors of the livelihood outcomes. Conclusively, vegetable farming has the potential of improving livelihoods. However, the main challenge is not just one of engaging the youth in agriculture but equipping them with farming and entrepreneurial skills to enable them realise their ambition in farming. The local government in collaborations with the youth and academic/research institutions are urged to address these challenges when designing intervention for improving the livelihoods of youth through agriculture.