Assessing agri-preneurial skills of farm youth in the Odisha state of India

The large-scale unemployment and rural farm distress have led to exit of youth from farming. The agripreneurship development which focuses on creating key business skills has emerged as a panacea to revitalize Indian agriculture. The study aims to assess and understand the actual agripreneurial skills of farm youth engaged in agriprenurship. A total of 250 respondents were selected from five different districts. An exclusive composite index was developed to assess agripreneurial skills in which weights were assigned by principal component analysis. The overall mean value of agripreneurial skill index was found to be 0.083 ranging from 0.07 to 0.09. The findings indicate that the farm youth are deficient in skills like problem-solving, agri-logistic management and information seeking. Good infrastructure, greater extension outreach were significant in enhancing the skill level.