Vol. 3, Issue 1, Part A (2021)

The study assessed youths’ participation in activities of Value Chain Development Programme (VCDP) in Anambra State, Nigeria. A multi-stage sampling procedure was used to select 100 respondents. Data were collected from primary source through the use of validated questionnaire. Data were analysed using percentage, mean score and multiple linear regression. The findings showed that youths were mostly involved in rice production (M=2.88), rice processing (M= 2.72), cassava production (M= 2.68) and rice marketing (M= 2.05). Age, educational level, programme experience and annual income had positive significant influence on the extent of youth participation in the programme’s activities at 5% level. The VCDP beneficiaries had very high benefits in increased access to improved rice/cassava varieties, provision of agro-chemicals, increase in income, provision of all-weather feeder roads, adequate trainings on the improved technologies, increase in yield, and ease in marketing of produce. The major challenges identified were late/ untimely distribution of inputs, difficulty in payment of counterpart fund, poor monitoring and evaluation, high cost of production, fluctuation in prices of products, corruption and materialism among staff and poor off-taker implementation. The need for timely and adequate supply of agro-inputs and credits at subsidized rate by the service providers was one of the recommendations made.