New Delhi: Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Radha Mohan Singh has said that the technologies developed by the ICAR have significantly contributed to an increase in food grain, horticultural crops, milk, fish and eggs production. Addressing In-Session Meeting of Consultative Committee of the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare “ on Agri-entrepreneurship and Start-ups for enhancing farmer’s income”, he said that besides aiming to double farmers’ income, the Prime Minister has also given priority to Start-up India Mission. The ICAR has added this dimension in the field of agriculture which will provide employment opportunities to the youth along with income enhancement of the farmers. In this direction, several steps have been taken at different levels including providing training to the farmers at Krishi Vigyan Kendras on various subjects related to agriculture under the Entrepreneurship Development Programs (EDPs) and support with technical resources.
The Minister informed that in order to make agriculture more attractive to rural educated youth, the Attracting and Retaining Youth in Agriculture (ARYA) scheme is proving to be very effective. The Student READY (Rural Entrepreneurship Awareness Development Yojana) programme has also been initiated to reorient graduates of agriculture and allied subjects for ensuring and assuring employability and developing entrepreneurs. The ICAR has also setup a network of 25 Agri-business Incubation (ABI) Centers, keeping in view the spectrum of technologies, available infrastructure and the core competency of the institutes. The efforts of these centers are resulting in new startups which are coming in the market. Encouraged by all these efforts, entrepreneurs/start-ups have demonstrated their achievements at state and national levels.
The Minister concluded by requesting the members present to provide their suggestions and support to the programmes and activities; and hoped for cooperation for their successful implementation.
