Restructuring agricultural education for agribusiness development

There exists a training gap between the actual and desired levels of technical and managerial skills among the farmers required for the promotion of agribusiness and agro-industry in rural India. A study, conducted in rural areas of Delhi in 2003, has shown that financial management and marketing management are the two important areas where farmers need training. It simply justifies the premise that a greater emphasis should be given on the business component of agricultural education. Institutions engaged in imparting farm education and training should reorient their curricula to develop human resources for agribusiness and self-employment. These programmes should be developed based on specific characteristics of local resources and labour requirements. It is high time that students of agriculture are given strong business orientation through appropriate courses in business management and entrepreneurship development to empower them to take up selfemployment. SAUs can play a major role in this direction as they have strong first hand experience of rural problems on one hand and a strong network of multidisciplinary experts on the other. Focussed efforts are also required to create a strong interface between SAUs and industry in development of course curriculum, providing internship opportunities and on-campus recruitments in agro-based industries.