International Journal of Agriculture Extension and Social Development
2025, Vol. 8, Issue 7, Part H
Attitude of rural youth towards agriculture as profession
Nandania PH, Kalsariya BN, Raviya PB, Rajani SK and Bhatu HG
Rural youth form one of the most vibrant and influential segments of society. Their energy, adaptability, enthusiasm and openness to innovation make them valuable contributors to the agricultural sector. However, in recent years, there has been a noticeable decline in rural youth's interest and participation in agriculture, primarily due to factors such as unemployment, lack of modern exposure, insufficient institutional backing and a growing trend of relocating to cities for improved livelihoods. This disengagement poses a serious challenge to the sustainability and future of Indian agriculture. Keeping this in view, present study was undertaken to analyse the attitude of rural youth towards agriculture as profession and explore the relationship between the selected characteristics and attitude of rural youth towards agriculture as profession.
An Ex-post facto research design was used for the present investigation. To carry out the research, three districts viz. Junagadh, Rajkot, and Gir Somnath of the Saurashtra region were purposefully chosen. From each district, two talukas and within each taluka, three villages were randomly selected for sampling. From each village, 10 rural youth were randomly selected. Thus, a total 180 rural youth were selected for the study. Data were gathered using a pre-tested interview schedule through personal interactions. For analysis, appropriate statistical tools such as frequency, mean, percentage, correlation analysis, standard deviation and arbitrary methods were used.
The result of the research study reflected that more than two-fifth (43.89 per cent) of the rural youth held a moderately favourable attitude, followed by 38.89 per cent of the rural youth, who had neutral attitude towards agriculture as profession.
Whereas, 10.00 per cent and 7.22 per cent of the rural youth had highly favourable attitude and moderately unfavourable attitude, respectively. While none of them were having highly unfavourable attitude.
Among the sixteen selected profile characteristics viz., age, farming experience, land holding, annual income, socio-economic status, risk orientation and innovativeness had positive and highly significant relationship with their attitude towards agriculture as profession.
Whereas, family main occupation, economic motivation, achievement motivation, social participation and source of information had positive and significant relationship with their attitude towards agriculture as profession. Education has negative and highly significant, whereas size of family, livestock holding and marital status had non-significant relationship with their attitude towards agriculture as profession.
Nandania PH, Kalsariya BN, Raviya PB, Rajani SK, Bhatu HG. Attitude of rural youth towards agriculture as profession. Int J Agric Extension Social Dev 2025;8(7):572-576. DOI: 10.33545/26180723.2025.v8.i7h.2179
