Abstract:
United Nations defines “Youth” as a period of transition from childhood
dependence to adulthood’s independence and awareness of interdependence as
members of a community. Youth participation in agriculture is very important to
make a sustainable contribution to national development as well as the living
standard of the rural community. This study aims to examine factors affecting the
youth labor force participation in the agricultural sector in the Buttala DS
division, Sri Lanka. A field survey was conducted from February to March 2023
to collect the relevant data from 150 youth farmers selected randomly who
belong to the age group between 15 – 29 in the study area. Descriptive statistics
and frequency analysis were applied in the study to explore the socio – economic
and farming characteristics of the youth labor participation in agriculture sector.
Among the total respondents, the involvement of males and females in the
agriculture sector is 64.7% and 35.3% respectively. Tobit regression model and
its marginal effects were used to identify the factors influencing youth
involvement in the agriculture sector, and its results revealed that education
level, access to off-farm income, access to credit, a distance of the nearest market,
land ownership and land size have significantly influenced the youth labor
participation in the agriculture sector in the study. Among these factors, access
of off-farm income, land ownership and size of land were significant influenced
the youth involvement at 1% level while the level of education, access to credit,
and distance to the nearest market influenced the youth involvement at 5%
significant level. As revealed by the findings, several recommendations have been
made to attract youth to farming, such as providing the chances to earn off – farm
income, improving the credit access facilities, and ensuring their land ownership.
Thus, these types of strategies motivate the young generation to participate in
the agriculture sector in the future actively
