Youth Intentions toward Agricultural Entrepreneurship Careers: A Cognitive and Socio-psychological Analysis Based on the Theory of Reasoned Action

Abstract

The Agriculture sector in Kenya, like most of the sub-Saharan African countries, is the backbone of the economy, contributing over one-third of the country’s GDP. The sector plays a strategic role in ensuring national food security, yet it faces an ageing workforce and low youth participation. The youth, with their entrepreneurial mindset and their versatility in adopting new technologies and practices, are uniquely positioned to drive innovation in the sector. This study aims to understand what may motivate the youth to embrace agriculture by exploring the cognitive and socio-psychological factors that influence their intentions to pursue careers in agricultural entrepreneurship (agripreneurship). The study draws from the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) as the guiding conceptual framework. A sequential mixed-methods design was used, where insights from key informant interviews informed the development of a TRA-based questionnaire, which was then administered to 256 final-year undergraduate students from two public universities in Kenya. The findings show that, contrary to the belief that young people in developing countries are disinterested in pursuing careers in agriculture, empirical evidence from this study reveals a notable pattern suggesting that youth generally have a positive inclination toward pursuing careers in agripreneurship. The positive intentions of the youth were found to be associated with their family background, socio-cultural norms, and socio-economic factors. However, despite their favourable inclinations, there are substantial cognitive and structural barriers that constrain their actual participation. Further, the study found that the youth's intentions to pursue agricultural entrepreneurship were strongly associated with subjective norms (r﹦0.225, p < 0.001), including external social pressures and expectations from family, peers, and broader community, rather than solely by their personal attitudes. Based on these study findings, youth will be more inclined to pursue agricultural careers if they perceive approval from important referents. This paper concludes that to improve youth participation in agriculture, there is a need for integrated policies that address both structural barriers (e.g., financing, mechanisation) as well as cognitive and socio-psychological factors that reshape youth perceptions.