Youth in Tirupati district quit IT jobs for farming
A growing number of young people around Tirupati are leaving jobs, the IT sector and city life for agriculture, a report says. Glovil, an NGO in Vadamalapeta mandal, runs a 'young farmer movement' offering training in soil testing, crop planning and digital marketing. Susheelu, 28, who lost a Hyderabad IT job during COVID-19, earns up to Rs 15,000 a week from organic vegetables. B.Tech graduate Ramya, 26, learnt hydroponics on YouTube. District figures show 400 farmers aged 18-35 entered farming in two years.
Source
Chittoor — ఉద్యోగాలు · read the original report ↗
Desk check · some claims need care
What the desk checked (5)
- Around 400 young farmers aged 18-35 entered agriculture in Tirupati district in two years — Figure appears in source as district statistics, but no issuing agency or survey is named.
- Susheelu (28) of Tiruchanoor mandal lost an IT job in Hyderabad during COVID-19 and now earns up to Rs 15,000 a week from organic vegetables — Stated in source as a case study; income figure unattributed to any document or official record.
- Ramya (26) of Renigunta, a B.Tech graduate, learnt hydroponics on YouTube and sells in Tirupati — Personal account reported in source; not independently corroborated in the text.
- Glovil, an NGO in Vadamalapeta mandal, runs a 'young farmer movement' offering soil testing, crop planning, digital marketing training and loan guidance — Attributed to the organisation; founder director Nuthan Venkateswara Varma is quoted on technology-linked rural employment.
- 10-15 percent of the youth concerned moved from urban areas to villages — Source text shows a garbled figure ('1015 percent'), read as 10-15 percent; requires confirmation.
Analysts’ view opinion
This is less a romantic return-to-the-soil story than a signal about the quality of urban jobs on offer. The story itself attributes the shift to pandemic job losses, contract work, low pay and high city living costs — in economic terms, young graduates are re-pricing a salaried city job against self-employment on family land where housing and food costs are already sunk. The cases cited are genuinely encouraging at the margin — organic vegetables reportedly yielding around Rs 15,000 a week for one 28-year-old, hydroponics learned off YouTube by another — but 400 entrants aged 18-35 over two years across a district is a niche, not a labour-market reversal.
- The economics here rest on value-added niches — organic produce and hydroponics selling into Tirupati's urban demand — not on conventional field crops, where margins are thinner.
- The binding constraint is usually capital and market access, which is precisely where the NGO's role matters: soil testing, crop planning, digital marketing and help navigating bank loans and subsidies effectively lower entry costs.
- Cutting out intermediaries through online market links is the single biggest margin lever for a small grower, and also the most fragile once volumes and competition rise.
- A genuine public gain is fallow land around Tirupati coming back into cultivation, which adds output, local supply and some rural wage work beyond the young farmers themselves.
- The risk on the other side is concentration: if many entrants chase the same premium organic and hydroponic segment in one city market, prices and the reported incomes could compress quickly.
What to watch — Watch whether these ventures survive their first real price crash or crop failure, and whether the policy experts are calling for — linking rural development, agriculture and youth employment — materialises with credit and cold-chain support rather than one-off subsidies.
The story does not establish costs, land size, investment or net profit behind the income figures quoted, nor how many of the 400 young farmers are still farming, so it cannot show whether this is durably profitable or a stopgap until better urban jobs return.
Deep dive
Research brief · 8 facts · 4 dates · exam-readyThe brief
Context
Villages around Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh are seeing a reverse migration: young people who left for city jobs, especially in IT, are returning to farm family land. An NGO called Glovil, based in Vadamalapeta mandal, has anchored this shift through a "young farmer movement" that trains returnees in soil testing, crop planning and digital marketing, and helps them access online markets, bank loans and subsidies. Lands around Tirupati that once lay fallow are reported to be under crops again. District figures cited in the report show 400 young farmers aged 18-35 entering agriculture in two years.
Key facts
- Tirupati district figures cited: 400 young farmers entered agriculture in the past two years, in the 18-35 age group.
- The report cites a figure of 10-15 per cent of youth moving from urban areas back to villages.
- Susheelu, 28, of Tiruchanoor mandal lost his Hyderabad IT job during COVID-19 and now earns up to Rs 15,000 a week from organic vegetables on the family's small holding.
- Ramya, 26, a B.Tech graduate from the Renigunta area who did not get a job, learnt hydroponics on YouTube and finds a good market in Tirupati.
- Glovil, an NGO in Vadamalapeta mandal, runs the 'young farmer movement' offering training in soil testing, crop planning and digital marketing.
- Glovil also provides online market links for direct selling and guidance on bank loans and subsidies.
- Glovil founder-director Noothan Venkateswara Varma links the shift to rising youth employment openings in technical services like robotics and weather forecasting.
- Government schemes named as supports for the trend: Rythu Bharosa, PM-KISAN and subsidy incentives.
Timeline
- Earlier period (before the shift)Lands around Tirupati largely lay fallow and unused, as per the report.
- COVID-19 periodSusheelu, 28, lost his IT job in Hyderabad and began growing organic vegetables on the family's small plot.
- Past two years400 young farmers aged 18-35 entered agriculture in Tirupati district, per district figures.
- PresentGlovil's young farmer movement is running in villages; experts call for a state policy linking rural development, agriculture and youth interest.
Who has a stake
- Young returnees aged 18-35 (IT job losers, unemployed graduates) — Income and livelihood security through organic and hydroponic farming instead of low-paid, insecure urban jobs.
- Glovil NGO, Vadamalapeta mandal — Runs the training, market-linkage and loan-guidance programme that enables the shift.
- Tirupati district and its villages — Fallow land brought back under cultivation; reversal of rural out-migration.
- State government and agriculture department — Experts want a policy converging rural development, agriculture and youth aspirations; delivery of Rythu Bharosa and subsidies.
- Union government (PM-KISAN) — Income support scheme cited as a cushion for new young farmers.
- Consumers in Tirupati — Access to organic and hydroponic produce sold directly through online and local markets.
Why it matters
Agriculture in India has long been seen as a sector the young abandon; a documented flow of 400 youth aged 18-35 into farming in one district in two years, with fallow land returning to crops, inverts that narrative. It shows that when training, market links and credit guidance are bundled together, farming can compete with insecure urban employment. It also signals the policy gap experts flag: the absence of a framework tying rural development, agriculture and youth aspiration together.
UPSC angle
Prelims pointers
- Glovil is an NGO in Vadamalapeta mandal, Tirupati district, running a 'young farmer movement'.
- Tirupati district: 400 young farmers aged 18-35 took up agriculture in two years; 10-15% of youth returned from urban areas.
- Hydroponics: soil-less cultivation; taken up by a B.Tech graduate in the Renigunta area after learning on YouTube.
- Schemes cited in the story: Rythu Bharosa (state) and PM-KISAN (central), plus subsidy incentives.
- Glovil's three training areas: soil testing, crop planning and digital marketing.
- Glovil founder-director: Noothan Venkateswara Varma.
Mains framing
The Tirupati case illustrates a small but significant reverse migration into agriculture, driven as much by push factors as pull: loss of IT jobs during COVID-19, temporary contracts, low salaries, absence of job security, high urban living costs and mental fatigue, set against the pull of family land, organic produce markets and low-cost digital learning such as YouTube-taught hydroponics. What converts distress return into viable enterprise is intermediation: Glovil's training in soil testing, crop planning and digital marketing, direct online market links that cut out intermediaries, and hand-holding for bank loans and subsidies, layered on income support from Rythu Bharosa and PM-KISAN. The visible outcome is ecological and economic - fallow land around Tirupati back under crops, and weekly incomes of up to Rs 15,000 for one organic grower. The limits are equally clear: the numbers are modest, the evidence is anecdotal, and the model depends on one NGO in one mandal. The way forward, as experts quoted in the report argue, is a state policy that deliberately converges rural development, agriculture and youth aspiration, scaling credit access, market linkage and emerging technical services such as robotics and weather forecasting into rural employment pathways rather than leaving them to voluntary effort.
Key terms
- Hydroponics
- Growing crops without soil in nutrient solutions; adopted by a young B.Tech graduate near Renigunta after self-learning on YouTube.
- Glovil
- Voluntary organisation in Vadamalapeta mandal driving the youth-to-farming shift through training and market linkage.
- Young farmer movement
- Glovil's village programme training returning youth in soil testing, crop planning, digital marketing and accessing loans and subsidies.
- Rythu Bharosa
- State farmer support scheme named in the story as an incentive backing new young farmers.
- PM-KISAN
- Central income support scheme for farmers, cited among the government supports encouraging the shift.
- Organic farming
- Chemical-free cultivation linked in the story to healthier lifestyles and a good market in Tirupati.
Practice questions
- Reverse migration of educated youth into agriculture is being driven more by urban job insecurity than by rural opportunity. Examine with reference to recent trends in Tirupati district.
- What role can voluntary organisations play in making farming viable for young entrants? Discuss with reference to training, market linkage and credit access.
- Experts call for a policy converging rural development, agriculture and youth aspiration. Suggest the components such a policy should have.
Grounded only in the source report — figures and dates are the source's, not inferred.