Reorienting agricultural education system in India

Agricultural Education in India

Abstract

Agricultural education and R&D in India have grown overwhelmingly over the years but funding level have not kept pace with growth in number of programs, institutions, colleges and universities. Restricted funding and vacant faculty positions are not allowing institutions to modernize the programs and infrastructure to catch up with the changing needs of agriculture and agro-processing. The agricultural education system needs to be redefined in India as it increases knowledge or information and it increases farmer’s capacity to learn. As the farmer becomes better educated, new ideas from outside hit them more often and they are more likely to understand, appreciate and adopt them. As the level of agricultural education increases, farmers will become more and more self-reliant and will depend more on their self-studies of the literatures dealing with farming and less on personal help from the extension personals. Currently, agriculture faces many challenges like low productivity, decreasing profitability in farming, rising quality competitiveness under the pressure of globalization, poor linkage of farms with the market, low knowledge of input agriculture, wide gap between lab and land experiments, low level of mechanization and value addition, supply chain management, lack of qualified manpower to address the new and emerging challenges and deliver at grassroots level, problem of managing biotic and abiotic stresses and inefficient use of agro-inputs and poorly coordinated natural disaster management system. To properly address these challenges, competent human resource in sufficiently large numbers would be required in the near future. There is a vast scope for young graduates to undertake agriculture as their profession which is directly or indirectly contributing to the economic and social development of the country. It is suggested that reorientation of agricultural higher education in light of some emerging issues in the context of globalization, such as food security, diversification, sustainability of ecosystems, and agribusiness is necessary. The curriculum of agricultural higher education needs to be made more broad based by including topics such as biotechnology, genetic engineering, agro-meteorology, environmental science, agro-ecology, computer application, information technology, conservation of natural and human resources, specialized job-oriented courses, and trade and export in agribusiness in the context of globalization. Manpower has to be trained scientifically to develop technologies in various areas. Finally, adequate emphasis should be placed on practical skills and entrepreneurial capabilities among the students to achieve excellence. Hence there is a need to revitalize Indian education system a great deal.

Key words: Agricultural Education, Research, Reorientation, Food Security, Sustainability, Globalization