Cutting edge Agri skills will reinvigorate Indian agriculture, making it an attractive career choice for our youth

It’s broadly accepted that for India to be a 5 trillion-dollar economy, Agriculture has to play a much larger role. It therefore becomes imperative to revitalize Agri skills - through formal academic training, field experience and independent research. We have to also make it attractive for our youth to seek Food and Agriculture, as a career choice.

There is public discourse and broad agreement on the need for formal training and acquisition of new skills to make progress in every sector - healthcare, IT, education, sciences and others like personal beauty care, cooking etc. Farming seems to be an exception. An abysmal 0.5 percent of farmers have formal training, the rest relying instead on knowledge handed down from forefathers, their “green thumbs” and on Mother Earth to do the trick for them.

Why should we then be surprised by the prevalence of outdated or inefficient practices?

Let’s ponder. Estimates suggest that 50% of diesel used in agriculture is wasted because farmers haven’t been taught how to use tractors or tillers efficiently. In India, the widespread practice of leaving water pumps on all night in the early years of the green revolution because of unpredictable electricity supply continues even today, leading to the consumption of twice the water per tonne of rice / wheat compared globally. This practice is depleting the water tables. Similar gaps in cutting edge skills are visible at the top of the pyramid - in Agri research and Agri start-ups.

At the “Agri Charcha”, sponsored by The Nudge Foundation in December 2020, I had the privilege of hosting a discussion on Agri Innovation with several eminent leaders drawn from across the public and private sectors. A key central theme that emerged from the discussion was to strengthen and leverage domain expertise across the entire Agri ecosystem.

The panellists at “Agri Charcha” included:

Ms Ritu Verma, Managing Partner, Ankur Capital, investing in disruptive Agri technologies. Mr Ramanan Ramanathan, Mission Director of the Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), under NITI Aayog. Mr Jayesh Ranjan, IAS, Principal Secretary, Industries & Commerce & Information Technology, Government of Telangana. Mr Anil Kumar, Founder and CEO, Samunnati, working on the areas of Rural, Retail & Agri Banking. I represented The Agri Alliance for Innovation, which I recently co-founded as a volunteer-driven, not-for-profit “Think & Do Tank” with a long term mission to reposition India as a leading agricultural Innovator globally by 2030.

I am summarising below some of the observations and ideas that emerged during the discussion:

• ThinkAg’s report presented by Ritu Verma suggested that most Agri Start-ups only focus on challenges that they intuitively understand - building market places, direct consumer access etc - all aspects of “farm to fork” that are extensions to their experiences in urban retail. Better problem identification and solution development, and working with domain specialists would greatly enable diversification into deeper areas.
• The Atal Innovation Mission supported start-up incubators are now establishing interconnects to provide domain expertise. Of the 70 incubators, around 20 have linkage to Agri skills. About 10% of the 1600 start-ups being incubated are Ag Tech.

This is just the beginning. Going forward, we hope all Agri start-ups have access to domain expertise, ideally through a mesh framework between geographically dispersed incubators and those with sectoral specialisation, to allow any start-up even in remote areas to tap into domain skills.

• Government of Telangana has created linkages with Agri Universities to overcome domain expertise gaps in the 83 Agri start-ups they work with. This is a wonderful example worthy of scaling nationally because it also helps in scaling up the capability of Agri universities themselves, who need access to new age Ag Tech for their students to remain relevant as large parts of the Agri value chain become digital.
• Last mile implementation issues bog down several Agri Start-ups since most farmers are neither digitally savvy nor have the affordability. A good idea is to involve the thousands of Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) supported by Nabard / Ministry of Agriculture and the 680 Krishi Vikas Kendra’s (KVKs) set up by Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and missioned to help spread new technology emanating from ICAR’s scientists.

It is worth reminding ourselves that initially the State Governments helped educate farmers while the KVKs focussed on disseminating new technology. But with the State Governments increasingly focussed on subsidy distribution, the task of educating farmers has fallen on the KVKs. It is time the KVKs went back to their primary role, i.e., help spread innovative practices and technology.

Building Agri skills is as complex as it is important, involving the Ministry of Skills working closely with each of the domain ministries - Agriculture, Fisheries, Dairy, etc. We need functional and strategic partnerships between Agri ecosystem and Agri universities, both local and global, enhancing curriculum embracing Ag-Tech, research and incubating Ag-Tech Start-ups.

On a note of optimism, Agri drone pilots, Agronomy, Bio-chemistry, etc are rapidly emerging as exciting, new career opportunities in several countries and can be in India as well. Building world-class agricultural skills will revitalise this economically important sector, position India as a leading Agri innovator globally and make agriculture (not just farming) an attractive career choice for our youth.

Nipun Mehrotra