Modern youth are disenchanted with agriculture and are shunning it as a profession. Examine the factors responsible for the situation and suggest measures to reverse the trend. (200 words)
Refer – Business Standard
Enrich the answers from other sources, if the question demands.
IAS Parliament 6 years
KEY POINTS
· Hardly 5 per cent of the youth are engaged in agriculture though over 60 per cent of the rural people derive their livelihood fully or partly from farming and its related activities.
Reasons
· Like their urban counterparts, the rural youth are also looking for better career and growth prospects which they do not foresee in rural areas.
· The failure of development programmes and policies to make farming profitable and adequately improve the quality of life in the rural belt.
· The other causes for the outmigration of youth are
1. Shrinking land holdings
2. Inadequate access to finance
3. Absence of efficient marketing
4. Paucity of innovative ideas and technical knowhow
5. Limited involvement in decision-making processes and policy matters
6. Poor image of farming as a profession
Suggestions
· Giving youth better access to agricultural inputs including land and financial resources; and link them effectively to re-organized output markets.
· Introducing training and capacity building, buttressed by ICT, social media, rural radio and other communication mechanisms.
· Conducive youth-friendly policies.
· Make agriculture more profitable.
· Improve agriculture’s image by creating awareness in the society about the importance of agriculture.
· Utilising social media to promote agriculture and educate young people could go a long way in engaging new groups of people into the sector.
Manav 6 years
Kindly review it. Thanks.
IAS Parliament 6 years
