Determinants of choices of livelihood strategies among young people in Rwanda

ABSTRACT

Using data from the 2016/2017 wave of the Integrated Household Living Condition Survey, this paper assesses livelihood strategies, the return to labour and drivers of choice of livelihood strategies among rural youth in Rwanda. The findings show that youth in Rwanda pursue four livelihood strategies, namely, agriculture, non-farm wages, self-employment, and diversification. Apparently, a non-farm wage is the most rewarding strategy. Age, sex, education, household size, land size, land productivity, and distance to the nearest urban centre influence the choice of livelihood strategies. The study recommends strengthening agricultural productivity-enhancing policies and the expansion of employment frontiers in the non-farm rural economy.

KEYWORDS:

• Rwanda; rural youth; farm and non-farm; choices of livelihood strategies

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 RWF = Rwandan francs; 1 USD = 853 RWF in December 2017

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture and the African Economic Research Consortium.

Notes on contributors

Kangondo Angelique

Kangondo Angelique is an agricultural economist with extensive training and experience, currently affiliated with the Rwanda Institute for Conservation Agriculture (RICA). In her role, she teaches courses in Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness while actively contributing to research and extension programs. Dr. Kangondo's expertise, showcased through her PhD in Agricultural Economics obtained from Sokoine University of Agriculture-Tanzania, is centered on critical areas such as rural and agricultural development, livelihood analysis, agricultural value chain enhancement, impact studies, Climate change, and youth aspirations.

Wossen Assfaw Tesfamicheal

Wossen Assfaw Tesfamicheal is an economist at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), based in Nairobi, Kenya. His research interests cover a wide range of development economic issues including adoption and impact of agricultural technologies, food security and poverty dynamics, agent-based modeling of human-environmental interactions, impact evaluation with applied econometrics, analysis of climate change impacts, social networks, and the development of entrepreneurship.

Mdoe S.Y. Ntengua

Mdoe S.Y. Ntengua is a professor of agricultural economics and development at Sokoine University of Agriculture in Tanzania. He graduated with a B.Sc. in Agriculture at the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, M.Sc. in agricultural economics at the University of Guelph in Canada and PhD at the University of Reading in the United Kingdom. He has more than 30 years of experience in teaching, research and advisory service. His research experiences include livelihoods and poverty analysis, youth in agribusiness, value chain and market development and project evaluation and impact assessment.

Gilead Isaac Mlay

Dr. Gilead Isaac Mlay is an Associate Professor with more than 30 years of experience in research, teaching and consultancy. He is currently working under contract in the College of Economics and Agribusiness of the Sokoine University of Agriculture. He holds a Ph.D in Agricultural Economics with a minor in Statistics and a Master of Science degree in Agricultural Economics, both from Oklahoma State University and a Bachelor of Science degree in Agriculture from the University of Dar-Es Salaam. He worked as an academic member of staff at the University of Dar-Salaam, Sokoine University of Agriculture and Eduardo Mondlane University. He also worked in the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology in Mozambique as a Statistics Specialist, tasked with setting up a reporting system to monitor the performance of higher education in Mozambique. For about six years he worked as Country Director of MSU Food Security Project in Mozambique, as a policy advisor in the Directorate of Economics at Ministry of Agriculture in Mozambique and a mentor of socio economists at the Center for Socio-economic Studies of the National Agricultural Research Institute of Mozambique. His research and consulting activities have mainly been in agricultural policy, agricultural marketing and management of forest resources. His publications have mainly concentrated in the same fields. He teaches macroeconomics, agricultural policy analysis, statistics and econometrics and supervises students' research at undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

Daniel Ndyetabula

Daniel Ndyetabula (PhD) is a Senior Lecturer from the Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness of the Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA) specializing in agricultural finance and investment appraisal. Between 2017 and 2022, Daniel served as a Visiting Lecturer at the Department of Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Development of the University of Pretoria where he taught agribusiness finance and investment appraisal related courses under the UP-AERC collaborative master program. Between 2018 and 2022, Daniel served as the Head of Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness at SUA and a member of the Academic Advisory Board (AAB) of the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC). Daniel has in the past also served as Visiting Scholar at the University of Wisconsin - White Water (USA) for research work on triggering cues for agribusiness value chain development. Currently, Daniel's research interests are in the interplay between international development and its role in guiding investment for sustainable agricultural intensification. Therefore, he writes widely on agricultural value chains, livelihood strategies, input subsidies, agricultural development outcomes, and agricultural credit. Daniel is a co-author of two books, one on microeconomics and another one on Agribusiness Investment Appraisal. He has authored and co-authored several scholarly articles in refereed journals, technical reports, and international conference proceedings. Daniel is currently the Chief Editor of the proceedings of the Agricultural Economics Society of Tanzania (AGREST) and Technical Editor of the Journal of Agricultural Economics and Development.