SATYAGOPAL, P.V.SHIREESHA, K2018-05-092018-05-092016http://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810045071D5317The 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.en-USnullThesis