The issue of 'farm readiness', i.e., the interest among agricultural graduates in taking up farming as an occupation after their graduation, is very prominent because most people still regard agriculture as a non-professional and less profitable career option for a young graduate and returning to farming after university would be regarded as a failure. Therefore, to know the constraints perceived by them in taking up agriculture as a profession and to corrective measures accordingly, a study was conducted by collecting data from 120 freshly graduated students belonging to all the four State Agricultural Universities of Gujarat using multistage random sampling technique. The quantification of data was done using Rank Based Quotient (RBQ) technique. The study revealed that high cost of cultivation and low returns, high cost of agricultural inputs and farm machinery fluctuations in market price, unpredictable climate changes, risk of crop failure, high cost of labour, inadequate supply of electricity, lack of proper irrigation facilities, lack of proper storage facilities, lack of proper agricultural infrastructure, lack of financial support, discouragement from the family and friends, lack of proper transportation facilities, inadequate practical knowledge and lack of incentives from the government were the major constraints faced by them.
The present scenario of rising unemployment among the agricultural graduates must be replaced by taking up agriculture as their profession and also to increase the production and productivity in agriculture. Thus, a study was conducted in all the four State Agricultural Universities of Gujarat, to know the perception of agricultural graduates towards agriculture as a profession and to find out the characteristics that influence their perception. One college from each university was selected randomly. From each selected college thirty agricultural graduates were selected randomly. Thus, the total sample size was 120 agricultural graduates. The study was conducted using a questionnaire in the form of a google form. The study revealed that most of the agricultural graduates had medium level of perception towards agriculture as a profession. Age, academic performance, parental occupation, size of land holding, annual income, mass media exposure, achievement motivation, economic motivation, risk orientation and self-confidence had a positive and highly significant relationship; place of residence and agricultural business anxiety had a positive and significant relationship and family type and family size had a positive and non-significant relationship with the perception of agricultural graduates towards agriculture as a profession.
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