Based on an empirical exercise carried out in five villages of Odisha in eastern India, the paper looks into ageing of the farm population and the experiences and responses of farmers of various age groups to farming. The findings of the study indicate that agriculture is greying, farmers are getting older and the youth, particularly of higher and cultivating castes, are averse to farming. The unwillingness of these youths to join farming is mainly attributed to loss of social status, declining profitability in agriculture and discouragement of immediate ‘mentors’, the middle‐aged farmers, caused by the perpetual decline of farm income and loss of social recognition. The hitherto nonfarming youths, belonging to scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and service‐rendering castes, especially the female youths, are joining farming to fill this gap, mostly as leased‐in cultivators.
Our study focuses on the effect of agro‐based factors and human development indicators on the production of finger millet in eight states of India. Departing from the past studies, we employed the common and dynamic common correlated effects model, and our findings showed that the past year's finger millet production, productivity, area under finger millet production, rainfall and human development indicators positively influenced the finger millet production among the eight Indian states. The variable crop diversification has no impact on the production of finger millet. Overall result indicates the prominent role of human development assisting in the promotion of finger millet production. The empirical findings suggest corrective government policies in order to boost the overall production and consumption of finger millet at the macro level.
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