Determinants of Youth Labor Force Participation in Agricultural Sector: Evidence from Buttala Divisional Secretary’s Division in Sri Lanka

Abstract

United Nations defines “Youth” as a period of transition from the dependence of childhood 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 living standard of the rural community. This study aims to examine factors affecting the youth labor force participation in agricultural sector in Buttala DS division, Sri Lanka. Field survey was conducted from February to March in 2023 to collect the relevant data from 150 youth farmers selected randomly who were belong to the age group between 15 – 29 in the study area. To explore the socio – economic and farming characteristics of the youth labor participation in agriculture sector, frequency analysis was applied in the study. Among the total respondents, the involvement of males and females in the agriculture sector are 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, 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, and access to credit influenced the youth involvement at 5% significant level. As revealed by the findings there are several recommendations have been made to attract youth for farming such as provide the chances for earning off – farm income, improving the credit access facilities, and ensure the land ownership of them. Thus, these types of strategies motivate the young generation to actively participate in the agriculture sector in the future.