ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the nexus between agriculture and youth unemployment in Malawi motivated by the fact that, although agriculture is officially described as an engine of economic growth and is the largest employer in the country, efforts to comprehensively address the question of chronic youth unemployment have been few and far between. The main challenge is that politicians have captured nearly all the efforts that have been implemented to address the question of chronic youth unemployment. Despite numerous challenges, the agricultural sector in Malawi has considerable potential to generate large-scale employment opportunities. The neglect of agriculture as a possible source of employment for rural youth is manifested in the country’s curricula for vocational training. The apparent neglect of agriculture as a potential source of employment for young people is mainly due to the political imperatives associated with a democratic political dispensation in a neo-patrimonial setting.
