The elders’ agricultural productivity level cannot meet the speedily growing population’s food and fibre needs. Additionally, the new ideas and techniques used to improve agricultural production are not user-friendly for most older people and illiterate. Subsequently, fostering youth involvement in agriculture remains vital to economic development in most developing countries. Therefore, youth remains an important and essential part of human resources that can carry the responsibility of development, including agriculture , and overcome some of the significant constraints to expand agricultural production in developing countries .According to ebb and flow bench,more than 50% of the population in South Africa depends on agriculture for their livelihoods, of which 36.2% are young people in the age range of 18 – 35 years . Agriculture has been identified as one of the sectors that have the greatest potential to create jobs for youth in sub-Saharan Africa.
Youth, which are the main bulk of the population in South Africa and responsible citizens of tomorrow, face many challenges such as lack of access to land, finance, markets, practical training, and incentives. The poor state of agricultural production due to lack of government support in the rural areas in Africa has resulted in the low interest of youth in agriculture. Lack of support system available to support youth made them not take advantage of the various opportunities that the government has instituted. According to mid-term report, about 30% and 19.4% of South Africa youth live in Gautengand Kwa-Zulu Natal province, respectively. The mere fact that Eastern Cape does not appear as a populated province by youth means that most youths in the province migrate to urban areas . Gauteng looks for better jobs than agriculture, and some are involved in delinquent activities such as drug abuse and stealing.
However, the high unemployment rate and poverty are among youth’s challenges and causing high youth migration to another province to look for better opportunities.Therefore, agricultural growth can weaken poverty directly by increasing youth agricultural farming activities and indirectly,through labour markets and reducing food prices . To foster a country’s economic development, youth should be encouraged to participate in agricultural activities because they constitute an important component in society and are the greatest assets of any country globally . According to 4x8ft rolling benches, youth constitute an important resource for sustaining agricultural productivity, essential for economic development and growth. Although a lot of research has been conducted on youth involvement in agriculture, there is still a lack of research that seeks to evaluate rural youth participation in agricultural activities, particularly in the Eastern Cape Province in South Africa. Consequently, the significance and constraints of rural youth participation in agriculture remain poorly understood. The study aimed to assess youth participation in agricultural activities in rural communities of Eastern Cape, South Africa. The dominance of male participation in agricultural activities aligned with the findings of in Nigeria, Eastern Cape, and Tanzania, respectively.
Similar trends were reported from surveys conducted in Tanzania, Ethiopia, and Nigeria, where men constituted a higher proportion than women, reflecting the tendency towards male dominance in the livestock industry in most rural communities in Africa. This is contrary to a survey conducted by , who reported more than 50% of youth who participated in Zambia’s agricultural activities were females. Less participation of females in the farming activities in the study areas might be due to females’ involvement in other activities outside agriculture such as domestic activities and or non-farm activities . Alternatively, it might result in males being more energetic and could be readily available for energy-demanding jobs related to farming, which tend not to attract females .The most represented age group was 20 – 35 years old , followed by theage < 20 years old of the total sample . These results concur with , who reported that youth age above 20 years tends to dominate agricultural activities. This implied that respondents were mainly youth, going by the definition of youth as a person aged 14 and 35 years .