An Integrated Development Pathway for Diverse Typologies: A Self-Help Tool to Develop Youth in Agriculture

Abstract

Supporting youth in actively participating in agriculture is crucial to ensuring food security and promoting economic growth. Yet, the active engagement of youth remains constrained by development frameworks that overlook their heterogeneity and by fragmented support initia-tives. The article aims to develop an integrated development pathway consisting of a pool of strategies that empowers heterogeneous youth to actively participate in agriculture. Drawing on support strategies emerging from a literature review of stakeholder and typology-driven development pathways that aim to enhance participation in agriculture, an integrated development pathway is proposed, considering the six livelihood capitals (Natural, Financial, Phys-ical, Human, Social, and Psychological) represented within the Modified Sustainable Livelihood Framework. The integrated pathway provides a bottom-up approach to development that empowers youth to choose their own specific strategies from a suggested pool, including diverse support strategies. Focusing on suggesting diverse strategies along a development pathway to enhance access to livelihood capitals provides a functional self-help tool that can effec-tively develop youth to engage in agriculture. The proposed reconceptualisation of youth development provides a facilitative rather than directive process that can serve as a roadmap for policy and other development partners in implementing effective youth development initiatives.