Attitudes of rural youth towards entrepreneurship a study in Birbhum district, West Bengal

Introduction

Agriculture continues to play a central role in the Indian economy and provides livelihood opportunities to a large proportion of the rural population. However, rural youth are increasingly seeking employment outside agriculture and migrating towards urban areas due to limited employment opportunities and inadequate income from conventional agricultural activities. This declining participation of youth in agriculture poses challenges for the sustainability and future development of the agricultural sector. In this context, agripreneurship can provide an important pathway for generating employment, improving rural livelihoods and promoting agricultural development. Agripreneurship refers to the application of entrepreneurial approaches, innovation, calculated risk-taking, market orientation and improved management practices in agriculture and allied sectors. It provides opportunities not only in crop production but also in dairy farming, horticulture, fisheries, sericulture, beekeeping, mushroom cultivation, food processing and other agribusiness activities. The growing demand for value addition, changing consumer preferences, technological development and expanding agricultural markets have further increased the scope of agripreneurial activities. Rural youth constitute an important human resource for the future development of agriculture. Their attitude, knowledge and perception towards agripreneurship can influence their willingness to adopt entrepreneurship as a career option. However, factors such as inadequate financial resources, fear of risk and failure, limited technical and managerial knowledge, insufficient market information and social constraints may discourage young people from starting agribusiness ventures. Government initiatives and entrepreneurship development programmes can therefore play an important role in providing financial, technical, managerial and institutional support. Against this background, the present study was undertaken to assess the attitude, knowledge and perception of rural youth towards agripreneurship and to identify the factors associated with these dimensions. The study also seeks to identify major constraints faced by rural youth in pursuing agripreneurship and provide suitable suggestions for encouraging youth participation in agricultural entrepreneurship and rural economic development. This version is suitable for direct submission in a research paper and can be further adjusted to match a specific journal's format or citation style.

Area of Study

The area of investigation of this study is situated in the state of West Bengal located in the eastern part of India. The State of West Bengal in eastern India has a unique social, cultural and ecological background, which influence the living standard and behavioural patterns of the people in many www.extensionjournal.com ways. The area of investigation belongs to the Bolpur block and Suri -I block of Birbhum district.

Selection of the Respondents

Random sampling procedure was used for selection of respondents from the selected villages namely, Surul, Ruppur, Daranda, and Sukhbazar. 25 number of respondents were selected from each village. Thus, a total of 100 numbers of respondents were selected for the purpose of the study. The male head and female head were chosen for interview, this was done purposely for accurate collection of information.

Variables

Statistical Tools

The statistical methods include Correlation, Regression Analysis, where applicable as per the characteristics of data.

Results

Relevance

The findings suggest that age and scientific orientation may be important characteristics associated with respondents' attitude. In particular, the positive relationship with scientific orientation indicates that respondents who are more oriented towards scientific approaches may tend to possess a more favorable attitude. The findings provide a useful basis for identifying variables that require further examination through regression analysis.

Relevance

The significant positive relationship between landholding and knowledge suggests that respondents possessing comparatively greater land resources may have greater opportunities or exposure related to agricultural information and practices. However, since the analysis is correlational, the result should be interpreted as an association rather than proof of a causal relationship.

Relevance

The results suggest that psychological and behavioural characteristics, particularly risk orientation and innovativeness, are important variables associated with perception. The positive association with innovativeness suggests that respondents with greater innovative orientation tended to have more favourable perception scores, whereas the negative association with risk orientation indicates an inverse relationship in the present dataset. The R² value was 51.21 per cent, indicating that the fourteen independent variables collectively explained 51.21 per cent of the variation in perception. The standard error of the estimate was 0.47592. Overall, the regression analysis indicates that risk orientation and innovativeness were particularly notable variables in explaining perception in the reported model, with risk orientation showing a negative contribution and innovativeness showing a positive contribution.

Conclusion and Recommendation

The study concludes that attitude, knowledge and perception are associated with different personal, socio-economic, communication, psychological and behavioural characteristics of the respondents. Age and scientific orientation were significantly associated with attitude, land holding was significantly associated with knowledge, and risk orientation and innovativeness were significantly associated with perception. The findings indicate that improving scientific orientation, agricultural knowledge, innovation capacity, extension support and risk-management capability, along with strengthening access to agricultural information and productive resources, may contribute to better outcomes among respondents. The findings can therefore provide useful guidance for extension personnel, agricultural institutions and development agencies in designing more targeted and respondent-oriented interventions.

Recommendations

References

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