Analysis of the Rural Youth Engagement in IFAD Value Chain Development as a Panacea to Unemployment in Southeast Nigeria

Abstract

Analysis of the rural youth engagement of IFAD value chain development program as a panacea (way-out) to unemployment in Southeast, Nigeria was the main aim of the study. The socioeconomic characteristics, value chain interventions, readiness of the youth to implement the skills acquired and factors hampering the youths’ readiness to implement the skills acquired were looked into. The data was analyzed using statistical tools such as descriptive statistics, principal factor analysis and inferential statistics of paired sample t-test in order to arrive to a logical conclusion. The factors hampering the youth readiness to implement the skills were rotated into awareness factors such as: Sex (-0.747), inadequate market arrangement (0.687) and inadequate fund (0.896) and institutional factors such as; age (-0.426), level of education (-0.797), high cost of labor (0.882) and absence of local fabricators (0.891). Furthermore, Sex, Age, Year of formal learning, Household size and mean monthly income were the socioeconomic variable that influenced the youth’s readiness to implement the skills acquired and the t-value of 10.5386** indicated that there was a significant difference in the mean income of the youths before and after their engagement.