Factors Affecting Perception of Farm Families Towards Farming as an Occupation

Abstract

Background: Perception is the way something is regarded/understood. It is mainly created by two factors; one is physiological and another is psychological characteristics of the human being. Thus, perception is not only physiological process that is what one sees with the eyes it is a much more complex process involving psychological process too, by which any person selectively assimilates and gives meaning to the stimuli in the environment. It is subjective process, thatis why different people perceive the same stimuli in different manner. The current study aimed to study the factors affecting perception of farm families towards farming as an occupation. Methods: The present study was conducted to ascertain the factors affecting perception of farm families towards farming as an occupation. The results are based on the perspective of different researchers. Result: There were six major factorsidentified namely economic, socio-cultural, physical, personal, psychological and push and pull factors affecting perception. The economic factors comprised of variables like income, cost of agricultural production and vicious cycle of debt and loan in farming and socio-cultural factors had variables like professional and social status of farming along with family influence affecting children occupational choice. Personal factors consisted of personal interest and satisfaction of farmers derived from farming while physical factors included hard work and lack of resources along with hazardous working conditions in farming. Stress prevalentamong farmers and satisfaction of farmers either with farming income or its status and risk associated with farming as a profession were studied under psychological factors. Push and pull factors comprised the reasons of farm families attracting towards urban areas for achieving better employment avenues and higher social status and prestige associated with other occupations.