Book of Contemporary Multidisciplinary Research

Entrepreneurship is the future, particularly for developing economies that are still striving to meet societal needs with limited resources. Agricultural entrepreneurship within the South African landscape remains crucial to achieving food security, promoting nutritious consumption, generating income, and improving livelihoods through job creation. With many start-ups and agricultural enterprises failing within their first year of operation, the current study explored the sustainability of agricultural projects influenced by various forms of business ownership structures, governance, and compliance with legislation. The study was conducted in the Limpopo Province of South Africa. A multistage sampling procedure was employed to select the study respondents. The first stage involved clustering study participants by district. The study used structured questionnaires to collect data from 150 youth agricultural project owners during face-to-face interviews. Descriptive statistics were used to gain insight into the distribution of socioeconomic status among the project owners. A multinomial logistic regression model was employed to identify the factors of business ownership, governance, and legislative compliance that impact the sustainability of agricultural projects. The study findings revealed that business ownership arrangements influenced the short-term sustainability of projects owned as agricultural cooperatives; meanwhile, those owned under sole proprietorships achieved long-term sustainability. Regarding project governance, the internal communication approaches and decision-making strategies helped young agripreneurs achieve medium-term sustainability, as they promoted collaborative effort. The study findings imply that policymakers should ensure legislation compliance during and post-incubation period amongst all the beneficiaries.