Rural youth reality laid bare: Maintenance work towards identity reconciliation
Rural poverty is one of the drivers of youth rural exodus. The latter, in turn, leads to agricultural labour shortages, which impact organizations, as this threatens their long-term supply of raw materials. In response, organizations deploy institutional work aiming at maintaining their sourcing activities. This qualitative article presents the results of in-depth interviews and a focus group with practitioners. I highlight the interdependence between organizations and smallholder farmers and the role that rural youth identity dynamics play in organizational maintenance processes. This study stresses the importance of ensuring farmers’ financial wellbeing to achieve identity reconciliation. Transforming identity challenges into opportunities for positive identity growth requires nothing less than reinventing the system.