Pantnagar Journal of Research

Abstract

Agricultural entrepreneurship (Agripreneurship) has emerged as a critical pathway for rural youth employment, poverty reduction and national food security. Despite its transformative potential, youth perception in agri-entrepreneurship remains constrained by multifaceted barriers ranging from socio-psychological inhibitions to structural and institutional deficiencies. This study analyse various variables that affect the youth perception towards agri-entrepreneurship and key constraints that restricts the youth engagement and enterprise sustainability. Data were collected from 200 agricultural students using a structured questionnaire comprising of 50 statements-25 each for perception and constraints and factor analysis was employed for dimensionality reduction. The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) adequacy value of 0.816 and 0.716, confirmed sampling appropriateness. Factor analysis of youth perception yielded seven dimensions- Prospects of agriculture, management of production, Agri entrepreneurship as a career, optimum utilisation of resources, success mantras, family involvement and modern technologies which collectively explains 63.54% of total variance. Similarly, seven constraint factors were identified, including Financial and institutional constraint, operational and marketing constraints, structural constraints, socio-psychological constraints, awareness and information gaps, household and resource constraints and enterprise development constraints accounting for 60.62% of total variance. The findings provide empirical evidence for targeted policy interventions, capacity building programmes and institutional reforms to foster sustainable agri-entrepreneurship among rural youth.