Vol. 11, Special Issue 2 (2022)

Author(s):
Shazia Tariq, Rizwana Malik, Tasaduq H Shah, Ishrat Aishi, MA Islam and TA Rather

Abstract:
The policy makers and universities are deviating students from job seekers to job producers due to increased unemployment at national and state level. Basically, the individual’s entrepreneurial behavior is a function of household socioeconomic characteristics; therefore, it is pertinent to study the socioeconomic factors that influence the behavior of person towards entrepreneurship. The study investigated the socioeconomic factors that impact the formation of entrepreneurial behavior among the postgraduate agricultural students of SKUAST-K in Kashmir. Multistage random sampling technique was administered to select the sample of 120 postgraduate agricultural students from the 4 selected faculties. Data were collected through a pretested structured interview schedule. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used in data analysis. Results revealed that majority of the respondents belonged to age group of 20-22, respondent’s fathers were educated up to graduation and above, mothers were educated up to middle school, mostly belonged to the general category and nuclear family, possessed land holding from 5.5 to 15 kanal, fathers were employees and mothers were housewives, annual income was between 1 to 5 lakh and mostly belonged to the villages. Among the eight variables, seven variables namely age, parents education, caste, family type, land holdings, parents occupation and annual income had highly positively significant correlation with entrepreneurial behaviour of respondents while locality had non-significant correlation. As the youth entrepreneurship has gained momentum all over the country, the study recommends that the socioeconomic determinant drivers must be given due importance during planning for successful implantation and development of entrepreneurship among Agricultural Students.