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Call to reorient farm education

Our Bureau

COIMBATORE, Oct. 29

SCIENTISTS who participated at the 26th Indian Agricultural Universities Association (IAUA) convention categorically spelt the need to revamp agricultural education and reorient research in tune with the demands of the millennium.

The Director General of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Dr Panjab Singh, referred to the emerging challenges as ``an era of uncommon opportunities'' and called upon the scientists to take advantage of the situation and capture the emerging s ituation.

The rapid technological advancements, both within and outside the country warranted agricultural graduates and scientists to cover a much wider spectrum of agriculture related activities. ``This would be possible only through effective and viable linkage s and networking with various scientific and agricultural organisations.'' he said and emphasised the need for better HRD programmes, which would generate technically-enriched manpower. He pointed out that in recent years, the private sector had emerged in a big way in absorbing some of the agricultural graduates. Global opportunities for export of agricultural produce had also induced some to start new ventures. Food, bio-technology, seed technology, vegetable sciences, floriculture, post-harvest techn ology, bio-pesticides, mushroom cultivation etc., were some of the areas that offered enormous potential for agri-business activity in the country, he said.

The challenge now would be to forge a strong university-industry linkage that could lead to a win-win situation to all, he said and disclosed that ICAR had come up with detailed guidelines to promote university-industry interaction through contractual re search with in-built incentives.

Knowledge generation and its judicious use in agriculture would be critical in deciding the fates of several developing countries including India, he added.