India's agricultural economy powers the country's economy, with nearly half of India's workforce engaged in agriculture and contributing significantly to rural living and food security.
In order to fulfill these needs, Indian agricultural education has to catch up and keep pace with the newer needs of the industry. The system has, over the years, fallen behind in trying to get modernized, with course being very detached from the needs of the new market.
As a result, there were no problem-solving and technology skills to deal with complex, cross-disciplinary problems among graduates. Additionally, undergraduate students, especially in the urban region, have never been prepared to pursue agriculture as a field of study because they perceived pursuing agriculture is time-wasting and non-remitting.
Although India needs around 10,00,000 agriculture and other farm graduates, only half the number is available for employment. "We are not strong and efficient enough in numbers to do farming," quoted a young veterinary science student Bharthiban from Tamil Nadu.
Aware of this, the Indian Government and Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) in association with the World Bank launched the National Agricultural Higher Education Project (NAHEP) during 2017. The mega initiative had two-fold objectives: to form and strengthen agricultural universities (AUs) within the country and equip students with industry skills, knowledge, and entrepreneurial spirit needed by an evolving industry. The concept was to update agricultural education to make it inspiring, stimulating and recent and, in the process, productive, income-driven and climate-resilient agriculture.
Sowing the Seeds of Change
Through the project, ICAR has brought India's 74 agricultural universities at par with the rest of the world with improved curriculum, creative pedagogy, electronic learning and future classrooms.
These institutions are more multidisciplinary in nature and dedicated to educating their students with the sets of skills required for confronting the demands of a changing industry.
Over 600 new courses have been developed that are within the umbrella of the markets, such as entrepreneurship, agri-business analytics, artificial intelligence, robotics, and precision agriculture. Ninety-seven disciplines have been refurbished to equip students with the skills to compete in an increasingly competitive contemporary world.
Sophisticated labs expose students to new technologies
The students are being educated in sophisticated laboratories, where they are being equipped with the use of GPS, drones and remote sensing. This is being carried out with the private sector to ensure that training gives students skills that are employable.
I also learned how to handle and pilot drones and utilize them for spraying pesticides and fertilizers."
She is now a professional drone instructor but one day hopes to be an entrepreneur. "I would love to have a business in the drone field," she states firmly of a promising future.
Virtual classrooms have even been set up by some colleges to offer online instruction as a supplement to regular in-class instruction in one of the better ways of teaching large groups of students at lower cost.
They are instructed by international and national experts online and get to see places they could not go to otherwise and acquire knowledge they would never have gotten wind of.
From her Assam village, 23-year-old student Kavita explains how studying online enhanced her abilities. "I can read satellite maps and operate drones at home.
