Analisis Minat Menjadi Petani dan Pemahaman Ilmu Pertanian di Kalangan Pelajar dan Mahasiswa di Kabupaten Semarang

The interest of young people in Indonesia to become farmers is decreasing, which can be seen from the decreasing percentage of young farmers. The purpose of this study is to see the extent to which students have interest and desire to play a role in agricultural development in Semarang Regency, by looking at the leverage factors so that the right approach can be taken in the preparation of the next agricultural development strategy. The approach taken in this study is a qualitative deductive approach with a purposive sampling data collection method with 248 people as respondents. The results of this study explain that there are 67.74% of respondents who are interested in becoming farmers with certain prerequisites that support their interests. Unfortunately, the respondents' understanding of agricultural science is still limited, where 43.55% of respondents understand agricultural science moderately, and only 7.66% understand agriculture in a broad sense. The most needed strategies to support the implementation of the respondents' interest are by strengthening and utilizing the latest agricultural technology, strengthening technical skills and modern agricultural knowledge for farmers, and increasing farmers' income through processing businesses, as well as developing agricultural knowledge and innovation.