• MSDE will facilitate identification of new job roles and alignment of the ongoing courses with NSQF for MoA&FW through Agriculture Skill Council of India (ASCI)
• Both the ministries intend to use Training Infrastructure (TI) already established under MoA&FW viz. NIAM, MANAGE etc.

In order to develop skills and increase productive of the rural youth, Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (MSDE) and Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare (MoA&FW) inked an agreement today in New Delhi. MOU was signed in the august presence of Shri Radha Mohan Singh, Hon’ble Minister for Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Shri Dharmendra Pradhan, Hon’ble Minister for Petroleum & Natural Gas and Minister for Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, and Shri Anantkumar Hegde, Minister of State, MSDE. Also, present at the signing were Hon’ble Secretaries from both the ministries.

All three departments of Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare have been involved in skill development of farmers through both long and short-term training programmes aimed at various elements of agriculture i.e. agriculture, horticulture, dairying, fisheries and animal sciences.

Both MSDE and MoA&FW recognize the importance of providing employable skills to the youth, to improve their livelihood. Under the MoU signed today, MSDE will identify job roles to attract rural youth towards agriculture sector in order to fulfill their needs and aspirations.

To begin with the Pilot at a few selected KVKs involving Aspirational and technologically oriented job roles (Micro irrigation Technician, Green House Operators, Green House Fitter, Aquaculture technicians) under Agriculture / Allied Sector, Food Processing and related sectors can lay a very strong foundation for new Pan India Model. The MoU signed for duration of five years aims to encourage youth to undergo skill training on various vocations in agriculture for gainful wage or self-employment.

Speaking on the occasion Shri Radha Mohan Singh ji said, “Our Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has a clear vision of doubling the income of our farmers by 2022. Under his able guidance our government is working on aspects like reducing input costs; ensuring a fair price for the produce; reducing wastage; and creating alternate sources of income. Our partnership with Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship through its Skill India program will ensure that we empower our farmers and rural youth for the New India of our dreams”

Speaking on the occasion Hon’ble Minister for Petroleum & Natural Gas and Minister for Skill Development & Entrepreneurship Shri Dharmendra Pradhan said, “India is an agrarian country with around 70% of its people depending directly or indirectly upon agriculture. It gives livelihood opportunities to more than 26 Crore People and is still the largest employer for work force in India. The recent union budget emphasized on the importance of growth of farm sector by empowering youth in rural India. This will not be possible without scalable skilling. MSDE will partner with Ministry of Agriculture to support the 690 Krishi Vikas Kendras and ensure that the market relevant skills are imparted.”

“The new value chains, retail companies, supply chain, logistics players are creating large employment potential. There is massive expansion of Jobs and demand in various sub-segments viz. Horticulture, Farm Mechanization, Precision Farming, Dairying, Poultry, Fisheries, Cold Storage and Post-Harvest supply chain etc. and we need to train the youth to move towards these jobs. Agriculture involves multiple skills and there is an urgent need to upgrade skills of Wage workers, Farmers & Entrepreneurs. Skilling would not only ensure that agriculture becomes technologically and entrepreneurially attractive to youth but also meet the emerging demand of Para Professionals in Agriculture, Horticulture, Dairy, Poultry and Fisheries,” Shri Pradhan further added.

To achieve the objectives, both the ministries intend to use Training Infrastructure (TI) already established under Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare viz. NIAM, MANAGE, Central Farm Machinery Training Institutes, Central Poultry Development Organizations, Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) and other such Institutions to train the rural population. The ministries recognize that this infrastructure can be utilized for skill development training in agriculture, horticulture, dairy, poultry and fisheries sector by Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare for the delivery of training in vocations in agriculture and allied sectors.  Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) will facilitate setting up of Skill Centers to run the skill development programme sponsored by the MSDE at 11 selected KVKs.

MSDE will facilitate the MoA & FW through Agriculture Skill Council of India (ASCI) for identification of new job roles and aligning the ongoing courses with the National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF).  MSDE will also identify the State-wise, Sector and Sub-Sector wise skill gap analysis to find out the exact skill requirements of the State/Region and will introduce new job roles related to Agriculture and allied sectors in rural areas through the ITIs network.

The Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) is a great enabler for creating a skilled workforce to meet new requirements in the Agriculture Sector. Under PMKVY 2,05,757 candidates have undergone Short Term Trainings across   37   Job roles across 29 states and 3 Union Territories and another 1,08,437 have been certified across 25 job roles under the Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) programme of PMKVY. Under the scheme, Qualification Packs for 159 job roles have been developed and 3376 Trainers have been trained under ‘Train the Trainer’ Program.

Besides this, MSDE is also facilitating Agriculture related skill development trainings in 746 schools across 11 states, 53 Community College /BVoc Programme.

The collaboration between both the ministries would help in meeting the challenges of requirement of new kind of job roles in areas of e-auction for Agri market, Commodity exchanges, Precision Farming, Farm Advisory services through application of GIS & Mobile apps etc, Land Pooling, Contract Farming, Custom hiring and Newer Technologies like use of Sensors & Drones for monitoring   and Robotics in harvesting, milking & Aquaculture etc.