PARTICIPATION OF RURAL YOUTH IN SELECTED INCOME GENERA TING ACTIVITIES RELATED TO AGRICULTURE

Abstract

The main purpose of the study was to determine the rural youths' participation in selected income generating activities (IGAs) related to agriculture. The study was conducted in two selected villages under Barisal district at Agailjhara upazila. Data for this study were collected from a proportionately random sample of I 00 rural youths by using an interview schedule during 21 September to 22 October, 2007. Majority (51 percent) of the rural youths had high participation, while 31 percent medium and 18 percent low participation. Correlation analysis indicated that among nine selected characteristics of the rural youths 5 namely education, farm size, annual family income, training exposure and daily time use had significant positive relationship with their participation in selected agricultural income generating activities and the rest 4 characteristics namely age, family size, rural mindedness and credit received of the rural youth had no significant relationship with their participation in selected agricultural IGAs. On the basis of Participation Index (PI), it was observed that poultry rearing, vegetable cultivation, and cattle rearing were the major three selected agricultural IGAs.