Agribusiness is one of the most promising sectors in sub-Saharan Africa with potential for youth employment generation. The objective of this study is to analyze the success and failure factors of agripreneurs, to identify the main constraints that hinder the motivation of youths to invest and participate in the agricultural sector. The study was conducted using data from 270 young agripreneurs located in rural areas, engaged in agricultural production or other activity of sales or processing of agricultural products. The results showed that formal education, total annual household income, innovation of agripreneurs, accounting skills and practices, and gender (male) were the most important factors that promoted the success of agripreneurs. In addition, the prioritization of constraints highlighted access to financial credit as the main difficulty, followed by the supply of raw materials. The study also showed that aid policies are mainly related to access to financial credit and training in agriculture. In addition, 33% of the agripreneurs surveyed were in agribusiness to support themselves. Moreover, 26% of agripreneurs made it their main activity by inheritance or support from parents. Finally, 18% of the youths surveyed were involved in agricultural activities for lack of alternatives. These results suggested that we should consider offering adequate training to youths and integrated internship programs.

This study was published as FARA Research Report 6 (02): Pp 40.