The paradox of farming choice by rural youth in the middle of urbanisation trend

Abstract

Today, farming is no longer a primary option for the youth in villages when it comes to the choice of a career. The farmer's profession is apparently treated only as something analogous to those who fail at school and lack expertise in any other sector. Consequently, a lot of young people from the villages migrate to urban areas to work in the non-farm sectors. However, this line of thought does not apply to the youth of Bulukerto village in Indonesia, who prefer to remain a farmer rather than going to town. It this anomaly that incited the interest of the authors to examine the deeper aspects, which inspired the youth to take up farming. This research is a descriptive explorative using the qualitative approach. The informants were selected by the snowball sampling technique. The result of the study showed that the youth picked farming as their career by giving weightage to its economic aspect rather than the socio-cultural aspect that lives and thrives in society. It also revealed that the youth of Bulukerto were highly rational in choosing farming as their career.