Abstract:
Though the youth is an important resource for economic development, yet their participation in
agriculture is very low in globally. Sri Lankan youths are stepping down from agriculture. As a
developing country, Sri Lanka must motivate youth involvement in agriculture to establish a proper
food security. Therefore, this study aimed to identify major determinants of participation decision,
major motivations and incentives for youth involvement in agriculture. This scoping study was a
mixed methodology that employs both secondary and primary information. The data for the major
study are coming from Household Income and Expenditure Survey conducted by Department of
Census and Statistics of Sri Lanka. The data were analyzed using multinomial porbit regression. The
polychotomous dependent variable contained unemployed, non-agriculture employed, and
agriculture employed categories. Results suggested that participation decision depends on
individual’s marital status, education level, location (urban, rural, estate), household size, annual
income generate from employment, household debt, ownership of an agriculture land and distance
to the agrarian service center. Around 30% of rural youths stay unemployed while 5% engage in
agriculture. The study found that 92.03% of rural youth who received more than ten years of
education are open to adopting modern technologies in agriculture. Although this did not impact
their decision to participate, the average land area cultivated per individual was 0.9513 acres. Civil
status had positive influence on participation decision; married, divorced, separated, and widowed
individuals tend to being employed compared to the never married individuals. The mean distance
to nearest extension service center was 6.8302km. Reside in rural or estate increase the
participation. Increasing household debts had negative influence while gender, ethnicity, cultivation
area and individual’s age had no influence on participation decision. The primary survey aimed
perception of youth about agriculture. This parallel study also resulted that the youth tend to adopt
new technologies for farming. 76.27% of youth state it as ‘Very important action’ to be taken. 72.03%
and 66.95% states that introducing agribusiness and entrepreneurial studies to school curricula,
provide vocational training on agriculture entrepreneurship is a ‘very important action’. Further, the
study recommends to promote advanced agriculture techniques, improve accessibility to practical
knowledge, and develop market-oriented production system that will also be effective to address the
challenges rural youths face.