29 www.extensionjournal.com P-ISSN: 2618-0723 Impact Factor: RJIF 5.1 E-ISSN: 2618-0731 www.extensionjournal.com International Journal of Agriculture Extension and Social Development Volume 1; Issue 2; Jul-Dec 2018; Page No. 29-32 Received: 01-07-2018 Indexed Journal Accepted: 04-08-2018 Peer Reviewed Journal Assessment of socio-personal and socio-economic characteristics of agricultural graduates of Odisha Asish Kumar Rout 1 , Dwity Sundar Rout 2* and Dr. Aditya Prasad Kanungo 3 1 PG Scholar, Department of Agricultural Extension & Communication, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, SOADU, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India 2 Assistant Professor, Department of Agricultural Extension & Communication, Centurion University of Technology and Management, Odisha, India 3 Professor, Department of Agricultural Extension & Communication, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, SOADU, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India Abstract Growth of population is directly related to the increase in importance of agriculture not only in India but also in the whole world. So, agricultural graduates are coming to the focus as of the farmers in India. Their mind-sets are also diverted after the statement given by Hon’ble Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi i.e, Youths should not be job seekers, they should be job providers. As no. of agricultural colleges are increasing in Odisha, no. of agricultural graduates are also increasing regularly. In this context, an assessment of socio-personal and socio-economic characteristics of agricultural graduates of Odisha was undertaken. The research study comes within the purview of sur vey research mainly “ex-post facto”. 80 number of respondents from three different colleges of three different universities were interviewed. Pilot study, Preparation and pre- testing of interview schedule, interviews from farmers and Processing of data had been undergone in this study. The statistical tools used in the study were frequency calculation & percentage. After proper assessment, we concluded that fathers of the respondents were more educated than their mothers. Majority of the agricultural graduate students of the state had less favourable to moderate favourable attitude towards agro-entrepreneurship. Maximum number of the respondent’s parents belonged to Govt. Service followed by business. So, The students related to agriculture must be encouraged by the family members and teachers towards agro-entrepreneurship. Agri-allied Skill oriented trainings and exposure visits should be made during undergraduate study & financial support should be provided to the interested students. Keywords: socio-personal, socio-economic, agriculture, graduates, agro-entrepreneurship Introduction In the present context Agriculture is considered to be a primary sector of Indian economy, which determines the viability and sustainability of the country’s economy. Mor e than 70percent people directly or indirectly depend on agriculture for their livelihood. The Govt. of India as well as the state Govt. gives more emphasis to boost agriculture in order to increase the production and productivity of the country. In this regard much emphasis is given for quality agricultural education to double the production and to improve the socio economic condition of farmers. The interest of youngsters in agriculture is declining day by day and attracting and retaining youth in this sector is very important for future food security (Kumar and Sengar, 2017) [3] . There is a need to formulate new policy to attract and retain the bright brain for agricultural education and research. It is a fact that all the trained graduates cannot be employed in public sector. On the other hand lot of scopes remain for agricultural graduates to play a key role in improving Indian economy particularly in the field of agro-entrepreneurship for contribution to national income. Every year more than thousands of students are awarded with bachelor’s degree in agriculture by the Govt. and private institutions those who impart agricultural education. It is not possible to give employment to each graduate as Govt. and private jobs are scanty in nature. Therefore the agricultural graduates are to be motivated for not to be the job seekers but to be the job givers through adopting various agri-allied activities. Against this background a study has been undertaken on the subject entitled “Assessment of Socio-personal, Socio- economic Characteristics of Agricultural Graduates of Odisha”. Review of Literature Ayanda et al. (2013) [1] reported that 43.20 per cent of the student’s fathers and 33.30 per cent of the mothers were civil servants, 7.4 per cent were medical personnel of the father and 43.2 per cent of the mothers were in various private enterprises. Chidi (2014) [6] opined that measuring (57%) of the agricultural graduate respondents were males by females accounted for the rest of 43 per cent. Dhakre (2014) [2] concluded that majority of respondent’s