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Challenges of Youth Involvement in Sustainable Food Systems: Lessons Learned from the Case of Farmers’ Value Network Embeddedness in Ugandan Multi-stakeholder Platforms

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Book cover Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals Through Sustainable Food Systems

Abstract

This chapter aims at investigating which are the persisting challenges faced by youth when playing a role in shaping a more sustainable food system. To do so, it presents evidence from a case study set in Ugandan coffee multi-statakeholder platforms (MSPs), which offers a local, contextualized perspective to this global issue. Building upon the notion of value networks, we analyse how younger farmers’ embeddedness in value networks relates to their potential to innovate towards more sustainable food systems. Empirical findings first highlight that younger farmers have significantly lower dimensions of value network embeddedness relative to older ones. Second, related to the limited value network embeddedness in a vicious circle, they own smaller farms in more remote areas from the markets and there engage less in collective action than older farmers. Third, their limited value network embeddedness directly constraints their innovation potential. These findings suggest that, in the context of MSPs, specific measures for youth inclusion and inclusiveness are necessary to embed younger farmers in value network and more effectively address their innovation constraints. In interplay with other empirical evidence from the literature, this case from Uganda highlights youth’s untapped potential in achieving many SDGs, including SDG 17, which targets the development of global partnerships for sustainable development, and SDG 11, which aims at the sustainability of human settlements.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Business Management & Organization Group, Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen, Netherlands

    Carlos L. Barzola, Domenico Dentoni, Twan van der Slikke & S. W. F. Onno Omta

  2. Barilla Center for Food and Nutrition and JAMK University of Applied Sciences, Jyväskylä, Finland

    Francesca Allievi

  3. Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda

    Prossy Isubikalu

  4. World Agroforestry Center (ICRAF), Nairobi, Kenya

    Judith Beatrice Auma Oduol

Authors
  1. Carlos L. Barzola
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  2. Domenico Dentoni
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  3. Francesca Allievi
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  4. Twan van der Slikke
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  5. Prossy Isubikalu
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  6. Judith Beatrice Auma Oduol
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  7. S. W. F. Onno Omta
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Domenico Dentoni .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department for Innovation on Biological, Agro-Food and Forest Systems, University of Tuscia, Viterbo, Italy, Division on Impacts on Agriculture, Forests and Ecosystem Services (IAFES), Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change (CMCC), Viterbo, Italy, RUDN University, Moscow, Head of Smart Urban Nature Laboratory, Moscow, Russia

    Riccardo Valentini

  2. Faculty of Medicine, Department of Nutritional Sciences, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada, Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Department of Medicine, St. Michael’s Hospital, Toronto, ON, Canada, Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, St. Michael’s Hospital, Toronto, ON, Canada

    John L. Sievenpiper

  3. Barilla Center for Food and Nutrition, Parma, Italy, Foundation Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change, Lecce, Italy

    Marta Antonelli

  4. Barilla Center for Food and Nutrition, Parma, Italy

    Katarzyna Dembska

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Barzola, C.L. et al. (2019). Challenges of Youth Involvement in Sustainable Food Systems: Lessons Learned from the Case of Farmers’ Value Network Embeddedness in Ugandan Multi-stakeholder Platforms. In: Valentini, R., Sievenpiper, J., Antonelli, M., Dembska, K. (eds) Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals Through Sustainable Food Systems. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-23969-5_6

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