Participation of Rural Youth in Fish Farming Activities

The main purposes of the study were to determine the extent of participation of rural youth in fish farming activities and to explore the relationships between the selected characteristics of the rural youth and their participation in fish farming activities. Field work for the study was conducted in Dewanganj upazila under Jamalpur district. Data were collected randomly from 99 rural youths out of 277 rural youths. Fish farming activities was measured by considering five aspects namely pond preparation, fry release, disease control, fish harvesting and fish marketing. The possible scores of extent of participation of rural youth could ranged from 0-45 while observed scores ranged from 11-36 with an average of 23.88 and standard deviation of 5.85. It was found that 34%, 51% and 14% had low, medium and high participation in fish farming activities, respectively. Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation Co-efficient (r) was used to explore the relationships between the concerned variables. The correlation analysis showed that level of education, annual family income, training experience, extension media contact, cosmopoliteness, knowledge on fish farming activities and social participation had positive and significant relationships with the extent of participation of rural youth in fish farming activities.The above findings lead to recommend that to increase the participation of rural youth in fish farming activities the concerned authorities should take proper steps considering the significant characteristics of the rural youth and in particular the aspects in which their participation is specifically low.