India's Backbone But Its Courses Continue to Lie in Shadows of Mainstream Education

The agriculture, India's backbone as profiled, continues to be somewhat under-represented in India's education system.

Agriculture, or the backbone of India as it is popularly referred to, is underrepresented even now in the educational system of the country. The wide variety of courses in Agriculture, Animal Husbandry, Agriculture Economics and Farm Management, and Genetic Plant Breeding, can be a stepping stone to a bright future.

Agriculture And Its Role in Education

Prof. Madhushree Sekher, who teaches at TISS, Mumbai, is of the view that more students would become interested in the subject with increasing awareness for agricultural programs. She asserted, "Once the word about our skill education programs in the agriculture sector becomes widely known, I am sure there will be more student traffic for the agriculture programs."

Affecting the Indian Education System:

With the age of speedy technological growth, agricultural courses bring a new dimension. "This course contains information regarding how agricultural crops are cultivated and post-care treatment of fruits from primary earth to by-product. All process details are there in the syllabus," he added.

"Most of the students arrive in this stream with an eye on competitive exam preparation; none of them opt for the agricultural sector since there's no financially sound income in this stream," Hemant Jadhav said.

SNDT Women's University professor Mira K Desai observed the significance of agricultural education in transforming the mindset, which is an important part of education.

But there are some students who complain about unequal opportunities and greater recognition for agricultural engineering. B.Tech Agri Engg student Tushar Joshi highlighted the need for equal marking division, a distinct cadre for agricultural engineers in the irrigation departments, and foreign training fellowships.

He declared, "We want equal mark division for Agri Enggs Like BSc Agri students. There must be a post of Agri engg separate in the irrigation dept. Only agriculture students understand how much & what quantity of water is consumed by crops. It would be highly useful for farmers. We need a separate cadre for agri engineering in Maharashtra like MP & other states."

Indian agricultural education is on the rise because of changing attitudes and awareness of its ambit. As per a report released in 2018, the intake for seven 'technical' UG courses in agriculture has gone up from 51,822 in 2017 to 64,619 this year, a 25% rise.a

Subsequently, a recent report holds the view that the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) is likely to achieve its export target of $23.56 billion worth of exports of key agriculture and processed food during fiscal 2022-23. The recent estimates place exports at around $26 billion.