Reluctant Youth Farmers and Agri-entrepreneurs in a Changing Agro-ecological Landscape

Abstract

Rural youth are more tempted to move from agriculture, propelled by aspirational framework that demean manual labour and farming. Cultural currents complicate it further by considering farming as a “Poor man’s occupation,” making many to perceive agrarian work as a downward mobility (fallback) rather than an informed choice. However, a small but growing number of returnees skilled in agroecology supported by packaged interventions (sophisticated technology, training, finance, network)- are looking at agriculture with hope and eco-profitability. These agri-entrepreneurs harness regenerative farming as an alternative model which not only revive ecological sustainability but enable locally situated social prestige lost due to earlier look back presumption. This study attempts to analyse this precarious youth positionality, by categorizing them into reluctant farmers (forced/conditioned) and agri-entrepreneurs (choice) and evaluating the institutional mechanisms required to expand a sustainable force of agriculturists. We argue that integrated rural-urban eco‑agriculture training realignment endorsed by scientific, ecological and socio-cultural insight to have stable, sustainable and respected pathway.