A. K. Godara

The Perceived Preferences and Priority Pattern of Farm Graduates towards Higher Agricultural Education Vis-À-Vis Employment

Abstract The study was conducted on the final year students of College of Agriculture, CCS HAU, Hisar to ascertain their preference pattern for specialization in higher agricultural education and their priority pattern for employment. There were 86 students in all, of which 44 students were from 4-year programme and 42 students were from 5-year programme. The study revealed that the 4-year Agriculture stream graduates ranked Agronomyat the top followed by Horticulture, Entomology, Plant Breedingand Extension Educationat 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th, respectively. Nematologywas the least preferred subject and Agricultural Meteorologywas the least but one. The 6 year Agriculture programme graduates ranked Agronomyagain at the top followed by Plant Breeding, Entomology, Extension Educationand Horticulture. The first five subjects preferred for higher agricultural education are identical with minor differences in ranking, maintaining Agronomyat the top. Regarding job areas, Civil/Administrative jobs remained the first choice of 4-year programme final year students of college of Agriculture followed by Educational and Research Institutional jobs, State Govt. Jobs, Agro based public sector, Agro-based private sectorand Self employment, while , General jobsand Farmingwere the least preferred job areas. The same priority pattern was observed among 6-year programme students except that they preferred State govt. jobsover Educational and Research Institutional jobs.