In this article, we explore the precarity of rural youth livelihoods in the aftermath of war in eastern Burundi. Combining ideas from agrarian studies and youth studies, we argue that a generational approach helps to expose structural problems of reproduction in rural communities. In the aftermath of civil war, young men and women experience their livelihoods and preparations for independent householding as ‘lacking’. They are aware of the unsustainability of current practices of land inheritance and farming, and their concerns orient them to other livelihood possibilities. Their responses to difficulties in social reproduction vary. Formal (secondary) education and gender in particular affect strategies of circular migration and marriage, and expose young people to hardship and violence in different ways. However, in contrast to what is often assumed in studies of rural African youth, most young people do aspire to a farming future, at some time and under better conditions.