Developing a Research Framework for Youth Engagement in Agripreneurship: Application of the Theory of Planned Behaviour

Africa has a huge youthful population. This important part of the demography is facing high rates of unemployment, underemployment and poverty. The agriculture and rural economy sector has the potential of providing the required employment, improving the livelihood of agripreneurs, turning around the rural economy and engendering national development. While indicators show that young people are less inclined to get involved in agribusiness activities, few formal studies have been conducted to theoretically and inferentially understand why this is so. A robust research should be designed to assess the predictors of agripreneurship intention and behaviour of youth in Africa. The findings of such would highlight the important factors for consideration in youth and rural development efforts and policymaking from the viewpoint of the youth. The central thesis of the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) is that attitudes, subjective norms and behavioural control – which are derivatives of behavioural, normative and control beliefs, respectively – determine behavioural intention. The intention, in turn, influences actual behaviour. In addition to the three established predictors, this study will extend the theory to enhance its explanatory power. The qualitative aspect of the study would explore the challenges faced by established and successful agripreneurs in Africa and add such to the conceptual model in the form of perceived lack of facilitating conditions. This is because literature has shown that issues such as land tenure system, infrastructure, and access to credit could affect agripreneurship engagement. Another construct relevant to this study is the aspiration of youth. These two would be assessed by induction and added to extend the TPB for better parsimony in explaining youth agripreneurial engagement. Based on this theoretical background and review of empirical literature, this study proposed a framework for studying African youth engagement in agripreneurship.