Human Resource Development for Agricultural Sector in India

Abstract

The paper describes a system dynamics model developed for dynamic analysis of human resource development for the agricultural sector in different sources of employment, viz., government, private (including corporate), academic, financial institutes, nongovernmental organizations, self employment, and others in India. Besides projecting an overall scenario for continuation of current agricultural education policy and trends, the paper analyses simulated results from the model for the current curriculum with 80:20 proportion of technical to soft skills. The analysis shows that in the coming years the private sector will emerge as a major employer for the graduates of agriculture and allied sciences. Keywords-Human Resource Development, Agricultural, India. AGRICULTURAL SECTOR Agricultural growth is critical for sustainable and inclusive economic growth in India, as the vast majority of the population depends on the agricultural sector for their livelihood. Close to 60 percent of India's labor force is employed in agriculture, according to the 2011 census. The majority of landholdings are small. Some 82 percent were classified as small scale in 2006; and farms less than two hectares occupied 40 percent of India's agricultural land (GoI 2011). Since the Green Revolution era, India has achieved impressive growth in agricultural production, boosting national food security and reducing poverty (Fan, Gulati, and Thorat 2008). But the agricultural sector still faces crucial challenges. Growth in agricultural production continues to lag behind the targeted 4 percent, and poverty and malnutrition remain widespread. Key development challenges for the coming decades are meeting the growing and diversifying food demand, especially for livestock and horticultural products, managing natural resources sustainably, and raising the productivity of rain fed agriculture. I.

Factors and Activities Considered by First Generation Agripreneurs for Agri-Business Sustainable Development: A Study of Haryana, India

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Attracting and Retaining Youth in Agriculture – A Case of Agriclinics and Agribusiness Centres (ACABC) Scheme in India

“…revealed that the agricultural education system was admitting 39,300 candidates. Manikandan and Sheik Abdullah (2016) reported that the demand for trained agricultural human resource depends on sectoral growth and attrition rate of the existing employed stock. More than 15000 agricultural graduates pass-out from state agricultural universities (SAUs) every year, of which only about 2000 find job in private and public sector, leaving a huge number of graduates unemployed (Global Agri System, 2009).…”