The Perception and Interest of Career Choices in Agriculture: Case of Agroecotechnology and Agribusiness Students

Abstract

The agricultural sector contributes almost half of the Indonesian economy. Based on data from BPS in 2019-2020, this sector provides food for more than 270 million people and dominates the source of income in Indonesia by 33.4 million (27.33%). Unfortunately, the high opportunity and prospects are accompanied by a lack of enthusiasm among the younger generation to pursue agricultural careers, resulting in a decline in regeneration. Some influential factors included: (1) the perception that the agricultural sector is less promising in the future, (2) the lack of prestige of relatively low salaries, and (3) the existence and influence of social strata in the community. The current study aimed to investigate students' perceptions and interests, particularly those of agricultural students, concerning their career choices and corroborate the phenomena of the young generation's falling interest in agricultural careers. The participants were 100 agriculture students from the Faculty of Agriculture, Universitas Brawijaya (FP UB). The study implemented a quantitative approach with a survey method. The data were analyzed using Tableau. The results showed that there were two dominant factors, external and internal, that influenced the career choices of agriculture students. Additionally, the responses from the students based on gender (male and female) were also different. The findings of this study provide a broader view on how to improve students' interest in agricultural careers through external and internal assistance, namely motivation and practical experiences during the academic year.

Analysing food farming vulnerability in Kalimantan, Indonesia: Determinant factors and adaptation measures

“…Despite the low educational attainment of the respondents, they understood and responded to the questions. In terms of age, the farmers were mostly categorized as not young and in terms of educational background, they have relatively low level of educational attainment, which was also revealed in other interviews [ 60 ] and generally showed the characteristics of farmers in Indonesia [ 61 ]. Table 7 describes respondents’ backgrounds.…”

Research on the Attitude of Young People Regarding the Attractiveness of Agriculture: A Case Study of Serbia

“…The opinion of young people regarding agricultural occupation is the subject of the following research study (Prasetyaningrum, Ruminar, Irwandi, 2022). In it, students of the Faculty of Agriculture of Brawijaya University in Indonesia were examined.…”

Perceptions of the Institutional and Support Environment amongst Young Agricultural Entrepreneurs in Laos

“…Negative societal views of agricultural work as being dirty [77], old-fashioned [78], and harsh [54,79] relegates agriculture as less-promising career for the poor, the elderly, and the poorly educated [57,78,80]. However, there appears to be a growing differentiation between "agriculture" and "agripreneurship", with latter perceived as a career of interest.…”