Developing Youth Agricultural Entrepreneurship in Latin America and the Caribbean

Abstract

Youth agricultural entrepreneurship programs lack cohesiveness in their curriculum content. The purpose of this study is to investigate an agricultural entrepreneurship curriculum framework for youth in Latin America and the Caribbean. Two quantitative studies guided our investigation. First, a Delphi panel study was used to identify the core competencies of a youth agricultural entrepreneurship program. An expert panel identified 45 knowledge, skill, and ability (KSA) items in a three-round Delphi panel. The KSAs with the highest final rankings included evaluating business opportunities, agricultural value chain, successful enterprises, local markets, evaluating funding options, business planning, budgeting, market assessment, and problem-solving. Second, we conducted a needs assessment (in Spanish) with rural youth from the Dominican Republic to determine their agricultural entrepreneurial intent and program training needs. Fifty-four Dominican students completed the Entrepreneurial Intent Questionnaire, revealing strong entrepreneurial intent (i.e., positive entrepreneurial attitudes, subjective norms, perceptions, and perceived behavioral control). Next, participants completed the Competency Questionnaire, based on the Delphi panel results, which showed that gaps existed between the KSAs’ importance to agricultural entrepreneurship and students’ capability of demonstrating those KSAs. The Youth Agricultural Entrepreneurship Curriculum (YAEC) framework was developed from the findings. The YAEC framework should be used to create and implement youth agricultural entrepreneurship programs in LAC.