Socio-Economic Impact of Poultry Farming in India: A Case Study of Rural Youth Farmers under Attracting and Retaining Youth in Agriculture Project (ARYA)

Abstract

The future of India's agricultural advancement lies on its rural youth. Through its Agricultural Extension division, ICAR has implemented the Attracting and Retaining Youth in Agriculture (ARYA) initiative through several recognized KVKs around the nation in an effort to sustain youth interest in agriculture and their sustainable livelihoods. This program has been implemented in five KVKs in Odisha. The current study was conducted in the Sambalpur District KVK in 2023–2024, where the ARYA project has been working on three enterprises: scientific horticulture nursery management, backyard poultry rearing, and mushroom production, with a horizontal spread of 400 rural youths. Following ARYA's implementation, backyard poultry rearing produced the highest average production and net income out of the three businesses supported by the program. However, the firm that produced mushrooms had a higher benefit-cost ratio. The social profile of young people in rural areas was positively and significantly correlated with a number of economic performance metrics. A number of institutions came together to provide technical assistance to young people in rural areas as a result of the program's execution. Under, ARYA project poultry farming is one of the primary features chosen for the present study. With this perspective, the present study has been carried out to know the attitude of beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries of ARYA project towards chicken farming. A scale including 24 statements was created using the Likert approach to gauge attitude. Out all the technologies used in chicken farming, 12 positive and 12 negative comments were chosen and structured appropriately. The "t" values from the item analysis were used to pretest and choose the assertions. Researchers and policymakers involved in poultry farming may find the attitude scale helpful.