Agribusiness Management a

Stepping stone towards a better

Standard of Living.Nelson Marwin Fernandes

Vishnu U. Pujari

Faculty, Department of Commerce

S.V.S College Bantwal

Introduction

India is known for its agriculture; in fact agriculture is the Backbone of Indian economy. Every third person in an Indian city today is a youth. Young people are three times more likely to be unemployed than adults and more than 75 million youth worldwide are looking for work. Engaging youth in agriculture has been a prominent topic recently and has risen up the development agenda, as there is growing concern worldwide that young people have become disenchanted with agriculture.

The challenges of retaining youth in agriculture have been recognized globally. Youth do not perceive agriculture as a remunerative and prestigious profession, and until they find meaningful economic and prestigious opportunities with value added back-stopping and attractive work environments in farm sector, they will continue to move away from farming.

Objectives:Empowering youth (including young women), developing their capacity through

engaging in informal and vocational training and creating awareness on new opportunities in agriculture including secondary and specialty agriculture and involving them in policy planning is the way forward for transitioning youth from “Job Seekers” to “Job Providers” in order to boosting rural economies and bridging the gaps in rural and urban India.

Some other objectives are stated as under;

• To asses national and regional constraints, opportunities and priorities for attracting youth (including young women) in agriculture to ensure food, nutritional and environmental security.

• To explore mechanisms for empowering farm youth through their involvement in decision making process at local, national, regional and global level.

• To understand pathways to ensure effective participation of youth in agriculture through enabling policy environment.

• To develop suitable mechanisms for greater involvement of youth through various initiatives and collaborations.

• To create synergies and networks for capacity development, access to new knowledge and linking science to society through youth.

Reasons for youth migrating from Agriculture:

• Younger generation is not getting proper guidance from their parents.

• Increasing Production Cost.• Fluctuation in the prices of Agricultural commodities.• Increased production leads to disequilibrium in the demand

and supply and hence price collapses.• Scarcity of agricultural labour.• Non-availability of skilled labourers.• Availability of agricultural land.• Delay in transfer of property from parents to children.• Non-availability of agricultural land to women.• Agriculturists or farmers are not respected in the society.

• Younger generation is not getting proper guidance from their parents.

• Increasing Production Cost.

• Fluctuation in the prices of Agricultural commodities.

• Scarcity of agricultural labour.

• Non-availability of skilled labourers.

• Availability of agricultural land.

• Delay in transfer of property from parents to children.

• Non-availability of agricultural land to women.

• Agriculturists or farmers are not respected in the society.

• Poor savings habit among the younger generation.

• Scarcity of basic facilities.

Recommendations and Suggestions:

Here are certain recommendations and suggestions that we thought necessary.

• Providing agricultural education from the primary level.• Providing information about the advantages of

agricultural activities.• Educating and training the youth about the agricultural

activities.• Including agriculture as an academic subject for

primitive and graduation level.• Institutional support should be provided for the young

agriculturist.• The institutions should take initiative in organizing the

conferences regarding agricultural and allied activities.

Conclusion:India is losing many farmers in a day and that since 1991; the overall number

of farmers has dropped by 15 million. This has several implications for the future of Indian agriculture and India's Food Security. Young farmers can play an important role in ensuring the food security if they are encouraged to involve in farming and the challenges faced are addressed. Over the past few years, rural youth have been shying away from agriculture and globally there is an increasing interest in finding ways of engaging youth in agriculture. Generally youth are willing to adopt new ideas and technologies and therefore agricultural extension services should target youth to transform agriculture. The youth could be the ideal catalyst to change the poor image of persons involved in agriculture, especially in the rural communities given their greater possibility to adapt new ideas, concept and technology which are all important to changing the way agriculture is practiced and perceived. Agricultural extension services can effectively address these issues by encouraging and supporting youth participation in agriculture. Improving their capacities and increasing their involvement will also help in changing the negative perception about farmers as “uneducated and unskilled, physical labourers engaged in a glamour less vocation with extremely low economic returns.