YOUTH IN FARMING-AN ANALYTICAL STUDY
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Date
2016
Authors
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Publisher
Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University
Abstract
The present study was conducted to analyze the selected profile characteristics of
youth in farmingand their attitude towards farming. The relationship between profile
characteristics of youth in farming and their attitude towards farmingwas elicited. Different
combinations of farm enterprises being followed by the youth and their contribution to net
income were analyzed. Perception of youth towards different farm enterprises through
selected indicators was studied. The problems in farming as perceived by youth and their
suggestions to overcome the problems were elicited and a strategy was designed to retain
youth in farming.
Ex post facto research design was followed in the present investigation.The
investigation was carried out in three districts selected each from three regions viz.,
Kurnool (from Rayalaseema region), Nellore (from Coastal region) and Vizianagaram
(from North Coastal region) based on lottery method. Four mandals from each district were
selected by following lottery method of Simple Random Sampling procedure. The sample
constituted to a total of twelve mandals.Two villages from each mandal were selected by
following lottery method of Simple Random Sampling procedure. The sample constituted
to a total of twenty four villages.From each of the selected village, ten youth in farming
were selected by following lottery method of Simple Random Sampling procedure. The
sample constituted to a total of 240 respondents.The data were collected by personal
interview method through a structured interview schedule and analyzed by employing
suitable statistical methods. Eighteen independent variables and attitude towards youth as
the dependent variable were identified for the study.
The results of the study shown that majority of the respondents were in upper young
age, completed high school to college education, had marginal farm size and medium level
of material possession and annual income, low to medium exposure to training, medium
level of extension contact, mass media exposure, decision making ability, innovativeness,
scientific orientation, management orientation, achievement motivation, economic
orientation and risk orientation.
More than one-third of the youth in farming were with moderately to highly
favourable attitude towards farming.One-third of the total youth had neutral attitude,
whereas less than one-third of them had moderately to highly unfavourable attitude.
Correlation analysis revealed that annual income, mass media exposure, decision
making ability, innovativeness, scientific orientation, management orientation, achievement
motivation, economic orientation and risk orientation were positively and significantly
related with attitude of youth towards farming at 0.01 level of significance whereas
education and exposure to training were positively significant at 0.05level.Age and farming
experience were found to be negatively non-significant whereas marital status, family type,
farm size, material possession, extension contact showed positively non-significant
relationship with attitude of youth towards farming.
Among different combination of farm enterprises followed by youth in farming more
than one-third of them followed (A+D) combination. It was also found that a vast majority
of the youth had agriculture as sole and also as one of the enterprises in combination as a
source of income, followed by dairy, poultry and vegetables. Nearly ten percent each of
them had orchard and sheep as their source of income.Among different combination of
farm enterprises being followed by youth in farming, more than ten percent of the marginal
youth, slightly more than one-tenth of small farm youth and less than one-tenth of semimedium
youth had practiced (A+D) combination.
A huge majority of the youth was depending on the agriculture and it had contributed
to more than two-third of the total net income (NI) of the individuals followed by dairy,
vegetable, orchard, sheep, poultry and plantation.The major proportion of net income was
contributed by agriculture in majority of the combinations followed by the youth in
farming. On the contrary, vegetable contributed to major proportion of net income earned
in the combinations consisting of vegetables as one of the farm enterprises.
The overall perception of youth in farming based on all the indicators was resulted in
the ranking of the enterprises. Agriculture was perceived as the most efficient enterprise
followed by dairy, vegetable, poultry, sheep, plantation and at last orchard was perceived as
the least efficient enterprise by the youth in farming.
Among the production linked problems, „drastic variations in climatic conditions‟. In
case of market problems „involvement of intermediaries in marketing of farm produce‟. In
finance linked problems, „lack of remunerative prices for different crops‟. Regarding
information and communication linked problems „poor accessibility to different ICT tools‟
were perceived as the major problems by the majority of the youth in farming.The major
suggestion given by them was, „exploring export avenues for marketing and regularizing
remunerative price for farm produce‟.
The designed strategic model was primarily organized into three domains viz., sociopsychological,
technological and organizational. For each domain, four “Core areas of
concern” were identified to describe the strategy more comprehensively. The strategy
analyzed the reality of the situation and shown the right direction for the flow of efforts of
stakeholders.
Description
D5317
Keywords
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