Youth in Agriculture
Recently I was engaged in the study of Agriculture in one block of Nashik and one small question in our study was related to how youth are engaged in agriculture? Do they want to continue with the farming or do they want to choose non farming occupations. I talked mostly to men given the patriarchal nature of our society. Women, doing anything in agriculture independently, were exceptions and proved the rule.
The discussions gave many interesting insights. In the areas where agriculture was more advanced and people had been gaining good incomes, farmers were able to give good education to their children and most of them were able to get secure well paying jobs in the cities. Those who were not faring well in farming were not able to support their children with higher education and these youths were opting to remain in agriculture instead of going to the cities. The reason these youths gave was highly interesting. They said it made more sense to remain in the village and be your own boss than doing some unskilled job in the cities where your work is not respected enough.
I compared this observed trend with the similar interactions I have had in various parts of Maharashtra and it shows the similar pattern. In western Vidarbha region where entire farming of the small holder is in distress, farmers do not want their children to remain in farming at all and many of them even go as far to sell of their lands to educate their children. Whereas in Marathwada where overall levels of education is low and farming is not very developed, one can find very high number of youths from the farming families remaining in the villages. Near my home in Ratnagiri, the people from the district have always shown a clear preference for migrating instead of remaining in the village farming. However, after experiencing lack of quality of life in the cities, many youths having lack of good education show clear preference towards remaining in their own native villages.
Everywhere, these less educated village youths engaging themselves in farming seem to understand modern technology and also have realised importance of digital means. They creatively use whatsapp and other social media for marketing and use of YouTube for understanding newer technologies in Agriculture. Some few have also gone forward and launched their own YouTube channels showing newer ways in farming and farm entrepreneurship to others.
However I could observe two distinct and altogether challenges with these youths. In this patriarchal society of ours, farming is a joint family business and the decision making is still mostly in the hands of the older patriarchs. Adopting newer technologies and taking risks requires a freedom for decision which is not offered to these youths by their families. Another challenge lies in the arranged marriage system and skewed gender ratio in Maharashtra, where potential brides and their parents have more option for choosing grooms who reside in cities and have somewhat assured incomes than those boys who have opted to remain in the village and engage in farming. Some farmers are getting good incomes compared to city jobs, but after all having to put your hand in soil and get it dirty does not look sexy. Probably they should start wearing cowboy hats.
While dependence on agriculture for livelihoods is decreasing day by day in this modern India and government is also very keen to gear itself up for urbanisation, whatever agriculture that is going to remain in the future is on the shoulders of these youths who have chosen to remain in farming. The average age of farmers currently in India is 53 years. Once these farmers retire, it will be all dependent on some few souls. Question is do we care for them enough?
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The discussions gave many interesting insights. In the areas where agriculture was more advanced and people had been gaining good incomes, farmers were able to give good education to their children and most of them were able to get secure well paying jobs in the cities. Those who were not faring well in farming were not able to support their children with higher education and these youths were opting to remain in agriculture instead of going to the cities. The reason these youths gave was highly interesting. They said it made more sense to remain in the village and be your own boss than doing some unskilled job in the cities where your work is not respected enough.
I compared this observed trend with the similar interactions I have had in various parts of Maharashtra and it shows the similar pattern. In western Vidarbha region where entire farming of the small holder is in distress, farmers do not want their children to remain in farming at all and many of them even go as far to sell of their lands to educate their children. Whereas in Marathwada where overall levels of education is low and farming is not very developed, one can find very high number of youths from the farming families remaining in the villages. Near my home in Ratnagiri, the people from the district have always shown a clear preference for migrating instead of remaining in the village farming. However, after experiencing lack of quality of life in the cities, many youths having lack of good education show clear preference towards remaining in their own native villages.
Everywhere, these less educated village youths engaging themselves in farming seem to understand modern technology and also have realised importance of digital means. They creatively use whatsapp and other social media for marketing and use of YouTube for understanding newer technologies in Agriculture. Some few have also gone forward and launched their own YouTube channels showing newer ways in farming and farm entrepreneurship to others.
However I could observe two distinct and altogether challenges with these youths. In this patriarchal society of ours, farming is a joint family business and the decision making is still mostly in the hands of the older patriarchs. Adopting newer technologies and taking risks requires a freedom for decision which is not offered to these youths by their families. Another challenge lies in the arranged marriage system and skewed gender ratio in Maharashtra, where potential brides and their parents have more option for choosing grooms who reside in cities and have somewhat assured incomes than those boys who have opted to remain in the village and engage in farming. Some farmers are getting good incomes compared to city jobs, but after all having to put your hand in soil and get it dirty does not look sexy. Probably they should start wearing cowboy hats.
While dependence on agriculture for livelihoods is decreasing day by day in this modern India and government is also very keen to gear itself up for urbanisation, whatever agriculture that is going to remain in the future is on the shoulders of these youths who have chosen to remain in farming. The average age of farmers currently in India is 53 years. Once these farmers retire, it will be all dependent on some few souls. Question is do we care for them enough?
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