YOUTH PARTICIPATION IN AGRICULTURE IN THE WA WEST DISTRICT OF GHANA: BENEFITS, CHALLENGES AND PROSPECTS

Abstract

Successful and sustainable agriculture mainly depend on people’s participation, particularly the involvement of the most active and creative section of the population such as the youth. Nevertheless, issues relating to the youth and agriculture still remain largely unknown, especially in the Wa West District of Ghana. This study examined, inter alia, the benefits, challenges and prospects of youth participation in agriculture in the Wa West District by the application of the theory of planned behavior and mixed method approach. Primary data were collected from 300 respondents aged 18 to 35 years using questionnaire. The respondents were selected randomly from five communities in the district through the multi-stage sampling technique. Descriptive, inferential and narrative methods were employed to analyze the data. The results showed that farming in the study area remains largely traditional and subsistent. It was found that the youth engage in agriculture mainly through family farms. Also, the young people were involved in land preparation, planting, crop maintenance and harvesting/post-harvesting roles. The majority of the youth associated the main benefit of their participation in agriculture to achieving food security for themselves and their families. The findings also revealed that most young people faced varying degrees of constraints ranging from their personal negative attitudes towards agriculture (such as work with low financial returns, little respect and high risk) to lack of access to resources (including storage and credit facilities, agricultural inputs, and modern technology). All the same, majority of the youth intend to continue to partake in farming. The study concludes that though there is a high prospect of continued youth participation in agriculture in the study area, without providing the young people with storage facilities, allaying their fears that farming is a high risk work as well as treating them differently based on their beliefs on the benefits of their involvement in farming, a significant number of them are more likely to exit farming sooner than later.