Krishi Vigyan Kendras to impart skill development for agriculture

The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare and the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to conduct skill development training programmes for agriculture and allied sector, on a regular basis, at Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVKs). Meanwhile, the skill development training programmes currently being run across KVKs will continue.
In 2016-17, 203 skill development programmes comprising 200 hours were organised by 100 KVKs and 8 national training institutes, training 3,549 youths. For this, Rs 3.53 crore was spent from Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY). In 2017-18, 94 training institutes have organised 116 skill development training programmes and imparted training to 2,320 youths. A provision of Rs 2 crore has been made for conducting skill training programmes in 2017-18 which is proposed to be increased to Rs 17 crore in 2018-19.
Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh said while signing the MoU, due to the low presence of agro-based industries in rural areas, it is important to increase the ratio of self-employment to employment to 100 percent. He said, there is a need to study the Skill Gap Analysis in agriculture sector by the Agriculture Skill Council of India (ASCI).
The Minister further said, the government believes that agriculture must be developed as a private enterprise so that it attracts more youth. For this, he said, the Ministry is working at four levels, such as increasing productivity; post-harvest management and fair-prices to the farmers for their produce; lowering risk in agriculture and strengthening and developing other aspects of farmers’ income such as horticulture, animal husbandry, beekeeping, dairying, fisheries among other allied sectors.