Agriculture is considered as a leading source of employment while ensuring food security to the world and especially rural communities. However, the youth do not appear to be interested in the agricultural sector due to various reasons such as their perceptions and aspirations towards the sector. This research intends to explore whether perceptions, aspirations and access to resources affect youth participation in agriculture and related economic activities, under rain-fed production in two regions of the Free State province of South Africa. Principal component analysis was used to determine perception dimensions, while a probit model was used to investigate the effect of capital (human, social, physical, financial and natural), the perception dimensions and the respondents’ agricultural aspirations on agricultural participation. The results showed that the aspirations of youth do not affect their decision to participate in the agricultural sector. However, exposure to agriculture and support systems can increase youth participation in the industry. Results also show that grants, which are an easy source of income, and the uneducated and comfort perception dimension hinders youth participation in agriculture.

Farmers use credit from commercial credit providers to finance production activities. Commercial credit providers have to predict the financial sustainability of the enterprise to ensure that the borrower will have the ability to repay the loan. A Delphi study was conducted to explore what factors are used as indicators of loan-repayment ability of farmers. The objective was not only to identify factors that are currently considered, but also to identify other personal attributes that may improve the accuracy in predicting the repayment ability of potential borrowers. The Delphi was applied to a panel consisting of nine credit analysts and credit managers from a commercial credit provider in South Africa. The results indicate that the current and past financial performance, account standing, collateral, and credit record of the farm are very important in the assessment of applications in terms of financial performance. Experience and the success factors compared to competitors were found to be important, while age and education/qualification are regarded as less important in predicting repayment ability. The results also show that, although not currently objectively included in credit evaluations, credit analysis regards leadership and human relations; commitment and confidence; internal locus of control; self-efficacy; calculated risk taking; need for achievement; and opportunity seeking as important indicators of the ability of potential borrows to repay their loans. Thus, credit analysts and managers also regard management abilities and entrepreneurial characteristics of potential borrowers to be good indicators of repayment ability. Results from this research provide new indicator factors that can be used to extend existing credit evaluation instruments in order to more accurately predict repayment ability.

Background: Despite the high youth unemployment levels, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, participation in the agricultural sector remains low. The agricultural sector provides valuable opportunities of employment, which could contribute towards relieving the high levels of unemployment and enhancing livelihoods of families in rural areas. Youth are also seen as the future of the agricultural sector and food production.Aim: To determine whether entrepreneurial dimensions, along with assets within the sustainable livelihoods framework, influences participation of youth in the agricultural sector.Setting: Focus is on youth and the influence of endogenous and exogenous factors on their participation in the agricultural sector.Methods: Entrepreneurial dimensions of 440 youth participants were derived from statements related to entrepreneurial skills and competencies by means of principal component analysis and combined with factors from the sustainable livelihood framework in a multinomial logistic regression.Results: It was found that the youth are heterogeneous in their endogenous and exogenous resources. Youth involved in the sector are more likely to have access to land and extension services, experience in the sector and support initiatives. In terms of entrepreneurial dimensions, youth involved are more inclined to believe in themselves and are more likely to take advantage of opportunities (pull entrepreneurship). The results show that policies and programmes should consider both endogenous and exogenous factors and combinations thereof to attract and enhance youth participation in the agricultural sector.Conclusion: Policy and programme development should consider the heterogeneity of youth in terms of their access to resources and entrepreneurial dimensions to enhance their participation in the agricultural sector. Participation in agriculture requires more than only access to land, and other individual physical resources attention should also be given to endogenous factors of individuals and combinations of different resources.

The purpose of the paper is to determine the influence of different factors used by a formal credit institution to evaluate loan applications in the agricultural sector. The research attempts to capture the actual factors considered by credit institutions rather than the traditional factors found in literature. Loan applications from 128 farmers, predominantly commercial farmers, were obtained from a credit institution with branches situated in various provinces of South Africa. Data consisted of loan application information which is broader than the financial information normally obtained in credit research, and the final decision of the credit provider. Principal component logistic regression was used to investigate the likeliness with which loan application variables influence the outcome of the loan application. Results indicate that loan applications that are more likely to be successful are older more experienced farmers, who can provide sufficient collateral, have more years of business with the credit provider, have an acceptable credit history, request smaller loan amounts, have lower interest expense ratio, higher production cost ratios, and have diversification strategies. This paper contributes to knowledge on information used by financial credit providers (institutions) in classifying agricultural loan applications as successful as guided by actual factors used in credit decision making by the credit provider.

Youth participation in the agricultural sector remains key to addressing youth unemployment. Young people represent a heterogeneous social group with markedly diverse social and economic needs that require tailor-made support interventions to enhance their participation in agricultural activities. The main objective of this article was to develop distinct youth typologies informed by diverse endowment of livelihood assets, including the psychological assets and entrepreneurial characteristics that shape young people’s career and livelihood choices, including participation in agriculture. A two-stage multivariate analytical approach was applied using principal component analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis (CA) to formulate youth typologies. Seven clusters were identified. The seven distinct clusters representing youth typologies were named “Training beneficiaries with access to extension”, “Job secure”, “Females endowed with negative psychological capital”, “Opportunist and determined livestock farmers”, “Social grant reliant”, “Resource poor traditional livestock farmers” and “Non-farming income with access to credit”. The results confirm that young people are indeed a heterogeneous group with diverse support needs. Unpacking the interrelated and multidimensional complexities among the youth is a vital take-off point to inform effective policy and tailor-made support interventions and effectively foster active youth participation in agriculture and related activities. We argue that support initiatives should not only address access to physical resources, but should also foster the development of soft skills such as entrepreneurial skills and boosting the psychological capital of young people while addressing gender inequalities.

The development of youth to actively engage in agriculture could address the persistent youth unemployment problem. For youth to actively engage in agriculture, adequate access to key productive resources is necessary. The main aim of this article is to develop and validate tailor-made development pathways based on the characteristics of four youth typologies, addressing the constrained access to key livelihood capitals, and to enhance the participation of youth in agriculture. The pathways are developed based on the Modified Sustainable Livelihood Framework (MSLF), which includes six livelihood capitals, namely, physical, natural, social, financial, human and psychological capitals. Four pathways were developed and named Business-oriented, Gender-oriented, Occupation-oriented and Livestock-oriented. Through focus group discussions, the pathways were validated to determine whether they can be used successfully to facilitate the participation of youths in agriculture. The results confirm that tailor-made development pathways can be used to develop youth characterised by the typology that informed that pathway, to actively engage in agriculture. The implementation of support strategies to support youth in agriculture, should therefore, be guided by the specific needs of different typologies. This allows for the coordination and coherence of youth support initiatives to enhance access to resources, which can yield improvements to desired development outcomes compared to initiatives implemented as piecemeals.