Exploring constraints and policy suggestions for strengthening rural youth participation in agriculture

Introduction

Youth is a term used to describe the period of transition from infancy to adulthood, which includes sexual maturation and the development of social and economic independence from parents (Bennell et al., 2007) [2] . The youth are the most powerful segment of a country's population. They are the country's backbone. The proportion of the rural youth population in India is about 67-68% of the country's total population. Agriculture is a significant economic sector in India, accounting for around half of all employment and almost one-fifth of the nation's Gross domestic product (GDP). Youth participation in agriculture can help to tackle the problem of unemployment while also achieving our food production goals because agriculture has self-employment potential and is more elastic in its ability to absorb labour. (Barge S.A., 2011) [1] . Youth migration from rural to urban regions in search of work has been on the rise; now, over 30% of the 315 million migrants are under the age of 30. According to a World Bank projection, half of India's population would be urban by 2050. Simultaneously, the proportion of agricultural workers in the entire employment is expected to fall from 58.2% in 2001 to 25.7% by 2050. According to Swaminathan (2007) [12] , The availability of human resources for agriculture and related activities has been diminished due to the migration of young people to metropolitan regions in pursuit of work. India is also losing about 2,000 farmers per day, and the total number of farmers in the country has decreased by 15 million since 1991.

Agriculture continues to play a vital role in India's economy, employing about 44% of the national workforce as of 2023 and contributing around 16.8% to the national GDP. In Telangana, the dependence on agriculture remains comparatively high, with 47.3% of the total workforce engaged in agriculture and allied sectors in 2023-24. In rural Telangana, this dependence is even stronger, where 66.15% of the rural workforce relies on agriculture for livelihood. The sector contributes 15.8% to the state's Gross State Value Added (GSVA), reflecting a gradual structural shift but highlighting agriculture's continued centrality to livelihoods, especially in districts like Suryapet. On the other hand, Agriculture remains undesirable to youth, prompting many to migrate from rural to urban areas in search of better opportunities and a better standard of living. Preethi (2015) [10] in her study observed that lack of necessary timely inputs, lack of irrigation facilities, electricity problem, and scarcity of labour as the most important problems faced by farm youth. Giuliani et al. (2017) [4] reported the problems felt by youth as absence of adequate transport infrastructure in their rural areas (47.00%), and lack of efficient irrigation systems (46.00%), for drip irrigation systems, which remain unaffordable for them in most cases. Butt et al. (2011) [3] opined for establishment of cottage industry in villages so that maximum numbers of rural youth get employed there and initiate various agricultural developmental programmes for the betterment of rural youth. Hadagali (2013) [5] in his study on aspiration and participation of rural youth in agriculture reported that supply of power to irrigation pumps at least for 12 hours (72.50%), timely supply of fertilizers and plant protection chemicals (66.66%) as the major suggestions given by farm youth practicing agriculture. The investigation therefore, is an attempt to determine the constraints faced by participation of rural youth in agriculture and their suggestions to overcome such constraints.

Methodology

The Ex-post facto research design was followed for carrying out the study. For drawing the sample for the study multistage sampling technique viz., purposive and random sampling were used. The research study was conducted in Suryapet district of Telangana. Out of 23 mandals in Suryapet district, 02 mandals with highest youth population namely Huzurnagar and Matampally were chosen for the study on purpose. Two villages from each mandal were chosen for the study based on their high youth population. As a result, four villages were chosen for research and from each selected village thirty rural youth were randomly selected making the sample size of 120 respondents, which are shown in the following Table 1. For ascertaining the constraints, rural youth were asked open ended question to state the difficulties faced by them in adopting agriculture as an occupation. The suggestions offered to overcome constraints were ranked on the basis of number and percentage of respondents who reported respective suggestions.

Results and Discussion

Constraints faced by rural youths in adopting agriculture as an occupation

Constraints mean the difficulties faced by the rural youth while participating in agriculture as occupation. The intensity of each constraint was computed in percentage according to the frequency of rural youth against the constraints and finally the rank was assigned on the basis of percentage. The outcomes were displayed in Table 2.

References

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