Title of document: Who Wants to Farm?  Youth Aspirations, Opportunities and Rising Food Prices

Authors: Jennifer Leavy and Naomi Hossain

Journal’s name if any:

Ministry/Government Agency/Organisation: OXFARM, DEV, IDS

Year of publication: 2014

Geographic focus: Global Level

Main issues / topics addressed (for example: Who wants to be a farmer? What the literature says; Approach and methodology; Findings; Conclusions…)

School of agroecology (if any):

Web address to original document (if any):

Summary:

This paper explores these conditions in a context of food price volatility, and in particular rising food prices since 2007. To do so, it analyses primary qualitative research on the attitudes of young people and their families to farming in 2012, a time when food prices had been high and volatile for half a decade. In theory, assuming higher prices benefit small farmers, food farming should be more attractive since food prices started to rise in 2007. But this simple causal assumption overlooks both that in many developing countries, it takes considerable economic power - ownership or access to cultivable land and affordable credit for inputs - to turn a profit in farming. It also fails to take into account more sociological explanations governing work and occupational choice - status aspiration and merit on the one hand, and perceived risk on the other. These two explanations help to explain why young people from relatively low income families, particularly those most likely to innovate and raise productivity levels, do not perceive farming as a realistically desirable occupational choice