How to increase farm productivity to feed a
burgeoning populace, how to use the existing farming methods and practices
optimally - these and other critical issues related to Indian agriculture will
be taught to Indian students of agriculture in a unique partnership project
funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
Under the project, titled Agricultural
Innovation Partnership (AIP), students of agriculture will be taught a new
curricula based on changing needs of the times, including on market trends, to
turn them into "market ready graduates", an official said here Monday.
The AIP is a "first-of-its-kind
initiative committed to reducing rural poverty and hunger in the Indo-Gangetic
plain by improving agricultural education and extension". Under it a
consortium of Indian agricultural universities like Pusa Institute and Banaras
Hindu University (BHU) will work in tandem with US universities like Cornell,
Illinois and Georgia, and private enterprises like Tata Chemicals Ltd, and
Sathguru Management Consultants Pvt. Ltd in capacity building of the teaching
staff and students.
According to Prasanta K. Kalita, an
Indian-origin professor at University of Illinois, students will be taught to
innovate according to situations to "make them ready to go to the field
and solve problems".
"We want to help students get
problem-solving skills, so that along with industry, government and NGOs they
can be part of a team," Kalita said, adding that the content would be
adapted to the Indian system and needs and not be text book driven.
As part of the partnership, a separate
institute of veterinary and animal health is being set up at Banaras Hindu
University, and a state-of-the art bakery institute is being set up at the
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel University of Agriculture and Technology in Meerut,
said Professor C. Ramasamy, national project coordinator of AIP.
"The emphasis will be on content,
communication skills, to help make them a team member and take up ethnical
issues at work and bring societal issues to classroom.... Basically connect the
students with society," said Robert J. Hauser, professor and dean of
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign at an interaction with the press
here.
"The AIP is aimed to help farmers
prosper using innovative technologies combined with optimum regulatory policies
that increase farm productivity through better cropping practices and improved
access to technologies and markets," according to a statement. "AIP
will leverage resources currently existing with private sector partners for
farm management and innovative technologies," it said.
Original article here
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