Youth Potentials Build the Linkage between Present and Future of Farming in India

Abstract

The progress and prosperity of a nation depends largely on the quality of human resource the country possesses. The present youth are the trend setters of future farming. India is the second most populous country in the world, but with an average age of 29, it has one of the youngest populations globally. As this vast resource of young citizens enters the workforce, it could create a ‘demographic dividend’. A demographic dividend is defined by the United Nations Population Fund as economic growth resulting from a shift in a population’s age structure, mainly when the working-age population is larger than the number of dependents. India is home to a fifth of the world’s youth demographic dividend and this population advantage could play a critical role in achieving the nation’s ambitious target to become a US$ 5 trillion economy. During last one decade, rural India witnessed the continuous migration of rural youth to urban areas. This situation is very serious and alarming and the migration of rural youth created a vacuum in the villages. It has been observed and expressed by many enlightened persons that villages are becoming old age homes draining away the talented farm youth to stay away from farming in India. There are more than 608 million family farms around the world, occupying between 70 and 80 percent of the world's farmland and producing around 80 percent of the world's food in value terms [1]. In the ancient India every family in each village was a single unit of production.  This ancient family occupation has survived over the ages through a process of transfer from father to son, generation to generation. But in recent times, with an exceptional externalization of farming and under pervasive influence of liberalization, privatization and globalization, this process of transfer of occupational knowledge within the community is seriously dislocated. Most of the younger generation sees very little to cherish in rural life [2]. Thus rural youth, in their formative years, seem to find their role models elsewhere. In fact, the urban life, so visible now-a-days, appears to attract them in many ways. As a result, in rural society, many things that were regarded as most valuable in Indian social life seem to have suddenly become out dated [3]. It is highly desirable that this kind of human resource must be retained in farming by creating rural and urban avenues favorable for agriculture growth and development. The present paper highlights the opinion in three major headings namely untapped youth potentials, current situation of farming and youth in India and future of farming and youth in India.