Rural youths’ choice of livelihood strategies and their effect on income poverty and food security in Rwanda

This study aims at exploring the relationship between rural youths’ choice of livelihood strategies in face of land scarcity, food security and income poverty. Data from the 2016/17 wave of Integrated Household Living Condition Survey, with a sample size of 1050 rural youths were used. Statistical and econometrics methods including descriptive statistics and Multinomial Endogenous Treatment Effect (METE) model were used to analyze data. Livelihood choices were grouped into five categories namely, agriculture, non-farm wage employment, agriculture plus non-farm wage, agriculture plus self-employment, and agriculture plus non-farm wage plus self-employment. The estimates from METE indicate that youths ‘choice of non-farm wage, agriculture plus non-farm wage and agriculture plus self-employment livelihood strategies contribute substantially to household food security improvement and poverty and poverty reduction as opposed to agriculture. These findings conclude that agriculture is a necessary but not a sufficient livelihood strategy to sustain the contribution of rural youth to their household welfare. Rural youth will pursue agriculture as a reliable source of livelihood not only for food self-sufficient but also if the sector provides adequate return to labor. The government and development practioners are recommended to create lucrative non-farm jobs to support agriculture in order to alleviate rural poverty, improve food security and ensure sustainable livelihoods by supporting productivity enhancing interventions including use of technology.