Impact of youth engagement in crop production in Karamoja region of Uganda; Case study of Kotido district

Abstract

The study evaluated the impact of youth engagement in crop production in Karamoja Region of Uganda using Kotido District as a case study. Specifically, the study sought to; establish the effect of youth perceptions on their engagement in crop production in Kotido district; establish the effect of Social-Capital networks on youth engagement in crop production in Kotido district and assess the effect of the economic factors on youth engagement in crop production in Kotido district. The study employed a crossectional survey study design incorporating both quantitative and qualitative methods to data collection with a sample size of 85 derived using Yamane (1967) sample size formula from a target population of 697 youth from 45 youth groups in Kotido district and 6 key informants that included the agricultural extension staff and local leaders of the selected sub counties. Quantitative data collected was exported to SPSS version 20.0 for coding to facilitate informative and relevant computation. The objectives of the study were analyzed using the Factor Analysis. For objective one, youth perception was significantly correlated with youth engagement in crop production with p-value of 0.007 which is below 0.05 with coefficient of 0.605. For objective two, Social-Capital networks was significantly correlated with youth engagement in crop production with p-value 0.004 which is below 0.05 with a coefficient 0.730 while for objective three, economic factors were significantly correlated with youth engagement in crop production with p-value 0.001 which is below 0.05 with a coefficient of 0.691. The study concluded that youth perceptions, Social-Capital networks and economic factors are paramount factors in determining youth engagement in crop production in Kotido district. The study recommends that Kotido district effectively manages the youth perceptions, social-capital networks and economic factors to enhance youth engagement in crop production because these variables have serious negative consequences on the promotion of youth and their engagement in crop production in the district.