Date: 08/09/2022

Relevance: GS-3: Issues related to technology missions and education in agriculture.

Key Phrases: IARI, Agriculture Universities, National Agricultural Research and Education System, Krishi Vigyan Kendras, Food-Insufficiency, Technological adaptation, Agricultural value chains, Gross Enrolment Ratio, Private Agriculture institutions, National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, READY programme.

Why in News?

• Multi-disciplinary orientation, socially responsible research and location-specific innovation are key to enhancing rural livelihoods.

Evolution of Agriculture Education (AE) in India:

• Prevalent since ancient times
  • Agricultural education was taught at Nalanda and Taxila University.
• Agriculture Education in colonial era
  • A fundamental department of agriculture in India was started in the year 1871.
  • Agriculture Research Institute now IARI, together with a college for advanced agriculture training, was established at Pusa in the year 1905.
  • Formal Agriculture Education in India began with 6 Agriculture Universities (AUs) in Kanpur, Lyallpur (now in Pakistan), Coimbatore and Nagpur in 1905, Pune (1907), Sabour (1908).
  • ICAR was set up in 1929 to boost the research ecosystem.
• Today, the country has 75 Agriculture Universities.
• With one of the largest agricultural research systems in the world — the National Agricultural Research and Education System (NARES) - India has 27,500 agricultural scientists, more than one lakh support staff and several institutions (agricultural universities, research institutes and Krishi Vigyan Kendras) under the supervision of ICAR.

Need for Agriculture Education in India:

• Combating Food-Insufficiency
  • India had suffered many infamous famines.
  • The legacy of famines and agriculture’s dependency on monsoons motivated policymakers to look into Agriculture research to find a solution.
• Developing Quality Human Resources in the field of agriculture
  • This was done to meet the requirements of research into increasing productivity.
• Development in other sectors can be only ensured after food insecurity had been tackled.
• Counter climate change and technological adaptation:
  • The advancement of technology, emergence of sunrise areas and the risks posed by climate change in agriculture have necessitated greater extension support to farmers for efficient integration with agricultural value chains (AVCs) to maximise farm incomes and adoption of risk-mitigating, climate smart agricultural practices.

Issues with Agriculture Education:

• Less demand for Agriculture Education:
  • For getting admitted to undergraduate courses, Agriculture Education attracted only 85 students per seat whereas Medical education attracted 50,000 applicants.
• Low Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER):
  • AISHE (2018-19) Report has highlighted that GER for Agriculture Education is a mere 0.03%, whereas for higher education it is 26%.
  • Agriculture Education is the second career plan for students who failed to get selected for Medical or veterinary courses.
• Lack of infrastructure and work force:
  • Inadequate state funding
  • Reduced faculty strength
  • Basic pay to new faculty during probation period in some SAUs
  • Inadequate faculty development programmes
  • Lack of modern infrastructure for education and research.
• Inbreeding in Faculty Recruitment:
  • 51% of faculties in AUs have studied in the same college.
• AE cannot retain students in agriculture:
  • As per Ashok Dalwai, 30% of graduates from AUs don’t work in the agriculture sector.
• Mushrooming of Private Agriculture institutions:
  • These universities provide mediocre education at exorbitant high fees.

Government Initiative to boost Agricultural Education:

• National Agricultural Higher Education Project:
  • The National Agricultural Higher Education Project (NAHEP), launched by ICAR in 2017, with the objective of enhancing competitiveness while designing market-oriented course curriculum, plans to develop 117 pilot courses to be offered by various agriculture universities.
• Agricultural education and research system:
  • Efforts are also on to align the agricultural education and research system with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 for forging industry-market linkages with educational institutions, to make the educated youth market-ready for enterprise and employment.
• New National Agricultural Education Policy:
  • The National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS) has formulated the New National Agricultural Education Policy for Reshaping India with a view to redefining and transforming the agricultural education and extension system, based on the five pillars of access, equity, quality, affordability and accountability.
• Student READY(Rural Entrepreneurship Awareness Development Yojana) programme:
  • The scheme was launched to reorient agriculture graduates and allied subjects to ensure employability and develop entrepreneurs.
  • It requires all students to undertake a six-month internship, usually in their fourth year, to gain hands-on training, rural awareness, industry experience, research expertise and entrepreneurship skills.
• ICAR established Krishi Vigyan Kendras for vocational training of farmers and fishermen and the first KVK was established in 1974 in Tamil Nadu.

Way Forward:

• There is a need to encourage socially responsible research with meaningful outcomes to suit the changing rural economic landscape, aligning with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This calls for an enhanced investment on agricultural education and R&D by way of:
  • Repurposing budgetary allocation for agriculture and re-prioritisation of R&D portfolio of the government, to attain the committed level of investing at least 1-2 per cent of agricultural GVA on agricultural R&D;
  • Institutional support for outcome based research studies in relevant areas under chair professor scheme;
  • Mobilizing CSR support;
  • Forging more international collaborations;
  • Encouraging private investment.
• Location-specific innovation systems should be supported to attract rural entrepreneurial youth to set up agri-tech start-ups for farm advisory services.
• The need of the hour is to re-examine the suitability of the current curriculum of courses in various agricultural disciplines and suggest ways to revamp it comprehensively, aligning with the NEP and incorporating provisions for integrating state/location-specific requirements as well as the needs and aspirations of all stakeholders concerned, embarking on a multi-disciplinary orientation involving researchers, academicians, farmers, industry, market and relevant institutions.

Sources: The Hindu BL 

Mains Question:

Q. “Declining rates of growth in crop yields, slowing investment in agricultural research, and rising commodity prices warrant redefining agricultural education system in India”. Discuss [250 Words].