Das and Chowdhury

attainment. Further, knowledge of aspiration of the people is important, as a man

has notions of desirability regarding his future status and does believe that by his

own selection and decision he can materially affect the role he will acquire and

discharge (Kuvlesky and Bealer, 1967). The occupational decisions and choices

made early in one’s life have a direct bearing on subsequent success and satisfaction

(Farmer, 1985). In fact, Mote (1982) suggests that the importance of making

occupational choices when the individual is fully aware of the consequences of

his or her choices is as important as the decisions themselves. Similarly, decisions

that are made when the individual is not aware of the consequences of his or

her actions could result in expectations that are beyond or below the capabilities

of the individual (Mote, 1982). Unrealized expectations, however, often lead to

frustration, insecurity and lost talent (Hanson, 1994; Mote, 1982). Over the past

fifty years, few studies have addressed the occupational decisions of agriculture

students. As a result, the process by which agriculture students make occupational

decisions and at the point in their lives when these decisions are made remains

unexplained. Additionally, it is unclear what bearing social and psychological

variables have on the occupational decisions of agriculture students. Keeping these

in view the present study was undertaken with the following set of objectives :

Objectives

(1) To identify the occupational aspirations of agricultural graduates.

(2) The sources of information utilised by the respondents for occupation and

job opportunities.

(3) To examine the association between socio personal traits of the respondents

with occupational aspiration.

Methodology

ThestudywasconductedonthestudentsofBidhanChandraKrishiViswavidyalaya

(Faculty of Agriculture), Post office: Mohanpur, District: Nadia, West Bengal. The

study was conducted during September-November, 2011. The respondents for this

study included the 1 st and 3 rd semester of M.Sc (Ag) students. All the M.Sc (Ag)

students of 1 st and 3 rd semester who were available at time of investigation were

considered as respondents. The sample size for the study was 232.

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