Study on Factors Responsible for Shifting of Rural Youth from Agriculture to other Occupation

Rural Youth Involvement in Agriculture

Rural youth involved in agricultural activities start from sowing to marketing. In addition to agriculture, they are also involved in allied activities like dairy, fisheries, etc. There are also possibilities to involve rural youth in areas like:

• Input management
• Seed processing
• Fertilizer application
• Farm mechanization
• Protected cultivation
• Precision farming
• Post-harvest management
• Value addition
• Quality assurance
• Food safety
• Marketing
• Information communication technology
• Advisory services

These fields have a lot of scope for providing self-employment opportunities. Hence, it is time to make the youth job providers rather than job seekers.

Though many opportunities are available for the development of rural youth, several challenges hinder their participation in agriculture and allied activities. These include:

• Widespread illiteracy in rural areas
• Lack of proper guidance
• Lack of interest and confidence
• Lack of leadership skills
• Parents' disinterest in involving their children in agriculture
• Perception that agriculture is inferior to other occupations

Moreover, with the growth of the industrial sector, there are great opportunities for remunerative employment, attracting youth towards industrial jobs rather than agricultural activities.

Push and Pull Factors of Migration

Push Factors

According to Anamica (2010), the following factors were responsible for migration away from agriculture:

• Low income levels (93.33%)
• Small land holdings (86.66%)
• Debt burden (83.09%)
• Lower wages (34.44%)
• Frequent crop failures due to aberrant monsoons (23.33%)
• Discrimination or inequality (13.33%)
• Unemployment or lesser employment opportunities (11.11%)

Pull Factors

The study also found that migrants were attracted to other occupations due to the following factors:

• Better standard of living (87.33%)
• Higher wages (68.89%)
• Better infrastructure facilities (25.56%)
• Better social linkage (23.33%)
• Less drudgery and safer working conditions (20.00%)
• Eco-friendly environment (10.00%)

Objective of the Study

In light of the above, the present study was formulated with the key objective to identify the factors responsible for the migration behavior of rural youth from agriculture to other occupations.

In Tamil Nadu, such trends are widely observed in Coimbatore district, with several research studies confirming this trend. Hence, Coimbatore district of Tamil Nadu was selected for the study.

Selection of Study Area

Coimbatore district was purposively selected as the study area since it is one of the agriculturally potential areas in Tamil Nadu. Additionally, it is the third largest and most industrialized city in the state.

More than 25,000 small, medium, and large-scale industries, textile mills, and factories are available in Coimbatore. Apart from this, rural youth have shifted their mindset towards professions other than agriculture. They believe that income from agriculture is insufficient and unreliable in meeting their present needs.

Coimbatore district consists of twelve blocks, out of which Annur and Karamadai blocks were purposively selected. A total of 120 respondents were selected from the study area using the simple random sampling method. Percentage analysis was used to analyze the data.

Identification of Push and Pull Factors

For the study, push and pull factors were initially identified based on:

• Review of literature
• Discussions with experts
• Consultations with experienced behavioral scientists and farm scientists
• Insights from local rural youths

The identified push and pull factors were refined and finalized after conducting a pilot study.

The results related to push and pull factors responsible for the migration behaviour of the rural youth are given in Table 1 and 2.

Table 1. Distribution of respondents according to their push factor

Table 2. The distribution of respondents according to their pull factor

Majority of the respondents (61.66 per cent) are involved in differential occupations, which had given more income generation and better standard of living is an another reason for shifting from agriculture. Availability of infrastructure facilities such as hospitals, schools and marketing facilities attracted 56.66 per cent of the rural youth for shifting. In order to overcome the severe water scarcity existed in the study area, rural youth tend to escape from agriculture and also stated that less risk was involved in the non agricultural jobs (45.83 per cent) might be one of the pull factors for shifting. Better jobs and high income ultimately attracted rural youth towards better social life and standard of living might be one of the pull factors for 35.83 per cent of respondents. Lack of educational facilities in the study area is one of the push factor, which primarily attracted 30.83 percent of the respondents to get more educational opportunities and facilities through shifting. Similar findings were also reported by Ramasubramanian (2003) who stated that the foremost pull factors were higher income (87.33 per cent) and better standard of living (54.92 per cent). The overall analysis showed that the mean value for pull factor (49.44 per cent) was more compared to push factors (41.73 per cent). Hence, the pull factor considerably contributed more for shifting from agriculture to other occupations.

Agricultural Information and Rural Youth

The prime channels for agricultural information for rural youth are their families and relatives. Hence, the transfer of technology machineries should be strengthened in the rural social system to focus on rural youth.

There is a need for a holistic approach to educate young farmers with all the necessary skills required to succeed as agricultural entrepreneurs. This helps rural youth gain confidence and empowerment, facilitating their continued engagement in farming activities.

Rural youth have expressed the need for separate guidelines to avail services from financial institutions and credit organizations. Encouraging them to avail credit facilities and providing proper training to reimburse the amount in time could facilitate rural youth to do agriculture profitably, making it possible for them to continue in farming.

Infrastructure and Support for Rural Youth

1. Establishing community computer centres with internet facilities is a foremost requirement in villages. This will help in accessing worldwide agricultural information, such as:

   • Price forecast
   • Pest and disease forecast
   • Weather forecast
   • Crop management

2. Establishment of machinery hubs on custom hiring will help rural youth reduce the cost of cultivation, facilitating their involvement in farming-related activities.

3. Prompt guidance of extension officials will help rural youth stay updated with the latest agricultural information.

4. Adequate skill training should be provided on vocational agricultural activities. Rural youth must be trained in entrepreneurial skills to promote young rural entrepreneurs in the coming years.

Future Projections on Migration and Agriculture

With development patterns and future projections on urbanization, the growth of manufacturing and agricultural development, it is very likely that internal migration in India—both temporary and permanent—will persist and grow.

This will lead to the transfer of populations from rural/agricultural areas to urban/non-farm sectors and occupations.

However, new policies must be implemented to secure the status of migrant workers and ensure equitable distribution of benefits (Deshingkar, 2006).

Key priorities should include:

• Reducing costs and risks faced by migrants
• Ensuring portability of state service entitlements
• Facilitating migration through transport and information policies
• Enhancing remittance facilitation
• Improving accountability and transparency in labor markets
• Raising awareness and enforcing labor rights (Deshingkar & Anderson, 2004; Wiggins & Deshingkar, 2007).