The primary objective of the study was to assess the contribution of youth owned
horticultural farms in poverty reduction in rural areas using a case of horticultural
production in Mvomero District. The specific objectives were to: identify types of
horticultural farms owned by youth, performance of youth in horticultural
production, find out socio-economic outcomes of youth participation in horticultural
production, and identify factors influencing youth horticultural activities and to find
out ways of improving the youth horticultural production. Purposive and random
sampling techniques were used to get data from 60 respondents. Data were collected
through interview, structured questionnaires, observations and group focused
discussions and analysed by using Statistical Packages for Social Science (SPSS) and
Microsoft excel programme. Finally, the findings were presented in tables and pie
charts.
Findings show that horticultural farms owned by the youth were tomatoes, cabbage,
green pepper, carrot, cauliflower, eggplant and potatoes farms. The performance of
the youth in horticulture was good as indicated by their positive perception of the
horticultural activities, quantity and quality of the product produced, socioeconomic
outcomes of horticulture including increased household income, house
construction, ability to pay education cost, ability to get basic needs and ability to
save. Facilitating factors included water availability, construction of horticulture
centre, support from the government and NGOs, willingness of the youth and
poverty. Limiting factor included high cost inputs, transport problems, bureaucracy
on subsidies distribution, poor financial support and farming technology.
Basing on the limits, it is recommended that improving transport system,
environment to access loans and quality control system on subsidies should be
improved. Also, a holistic approach is necessary to realise positive socio-economic
impacts on the people employed in horticulture.