Youth in Agribusiness in Uganda. An Ethnography of a Development Trend.

Recently, the demographic boom on the African continent, and the consequent challenge of unemployment, has fuelled a focus on ‘youth’. Given that the majority of the African population resides in rural areas, the emphasis of development policies for youth has focused on their employability in the agricultural sector. While the commercialisation of agriculture, as a development theme, has alternated with a focus on food security for decades, the emphasis on youth in agribusiness has come to dominate development policy making and budgeting in the past five years (with country-specific variations). The main research question of this dissertation is: How has the social category of youth been driving a new trend in development around agribusiness, and what has been its impact so far? This study attempts to answer this question for the case of Uganda. Reflecting the demographic trends on the African continent, Uganda has an exceptionally young population, which is mostly employed in agriculture. Like in other countries throughout Africa, over the past few years, increasing attention and budgets have been placed on engaging youths in agribusiness. While unique in many ways, Uganda is a ‘typical case study’ both as an aid recipient and as a participant in the development trend focusing on youth in agribusiness. I studied the emergence of the development trend on youth in agribusiness from two angles: conducting ethnographic research with both development practitioners engaged in the field of agribusiness, and youths working both inside and outside of development schemes. In total, I interviewed 24 representatives of development agencies and 110 youths living in four regions of the country. I also engaged in participant observation, joining development practitioners for field visits, sitting in high-level meetings, and interacting with youths during their agribusiness activities at the markets, in the agricultural fields and visiting their households.