By the year 2050, the world’s population is expected to approach nine billion, and the number of young people between the ages of 15 and 24 is likely to increase to about 1.3 billion, making up nearly 14 percent of the total global population. A major portion of this youth population will emerge from developing regions in Africa and Asia, where more than half of the people continue to reside in rural areas. In India, the share of youth in the total population was anticipated to reach 34.33 percent by 2020, offering a vast pool of human resources and potential for development.
Considering this background, the present investigation was carried out during the year 2022-2023 in Lucknow district of Uttar Pradesh, India, which was selected purposively for the study. The district comprises four tehsils namely; Bakshi Ka Talab, Lucknow, Malihabad, and Mohanlalganj of which Mohanlalganj block was chosen for detailed analysis. For the present study, five villages Atrauli, Daudnagar, Bhadesuwa, Hasanpur Kaneri, and Barvaliya were purposively selected from the Mohanlalganj block. From each of these villages, 21 respondents were randomly chosen, resulting in a total sample size of 105 participants representing the selected village panchayats.
Primary information was collected directly from the respondents through personal interviews, using a semi-structured questionnaire designed to gather detailed insights into the agricultural participation of rural youth. The collected data were analyzed using statistical techniques such as percentage calculation, cumulative frequency, and ranking to derive meaningful conclusions.
The results indicated that 50.47 percent of the rural youth fell under the younger age group, and the majority of respondents (67.00 percent) were male. Regarding education, 37.14 percent of respondents had attained secondary-level schooling, while 57.00 percent were unmarried. A substantial proportion (95.00 percent) of the youth came from farming families. More than half (53.68 percent) possessed marginal landholdings of up to 1 hectare. Nearly half (48.57 percent) of the respondents relied primarily on their own farms for livelihood. Additionally, 59.05 percent of rural youth had obtained credit from cooperative societies. Overall, 73.33 percent of the respondents exhibited a medium level of perception, and 65.71 percent had a moderate level of knowledge regarding agricultural activities. More than one-fourth (27.61 percent) of the rural youths perceived business as an area for their job opportunity followed by orchard management (26.66 percent), processing centre (25.71 percent), cashew factory (13.33 percent), contract labour (12.38 percent).
Jagatpal, Sunil Kumar, Anamika Singh, Mustfa Hussain, Swatantra Pratap Singh. Study on socio-economic profile, knowledge level and perceptions of rural youths in Lucknow district of Uttar Pradesh. Int J Agric Extension Social Dev 2025;8(11):205-211. DOI: 10.33545/26180723.2025.v8.i11c.2635
