A skilled workforce is a fundamental element of a vibrant rural livelihood strategy. India has witnessed several capacity building/skill building initiatives in the past, especially in the agriculture domain. With a perceived increase in the need for skill development to harness the benefits of technological and institutional innovations, and with the constant upgrade of tools, a new category of institutions in the private space and civil society has emerged with focus on developing specific skills of various stakeholders in the sector.

With modest agriculture growth, there is a clear need for a shift in the perspective of skill development. Following initiatives will make such a shift possible:

Farm and farmer-centric skill development initiatives: There is a need for imparting education on how cultivation in a farm is to be made viable and profitable.

Skill development initiatives should focus on building the capacities of individual farmer in the light of increasing the farm viability with the available financial, labour and land resources at his disposal and other livelihood-based options within the rural landscape. Risk mitigation through ‘portfolio management’ as well as ‘insurance’: Skill development initiatives should start emphasising on increasing the ability of the farmer to mitigate production and market risks and optimise resources of the farm to increase the farm viability.

Mixed farming measures such as taking up dairy, poultry, fisheries, along with agricultural or horticultural crop production, is the need of the hour for farmers to mitigate risk.

With greater emphasis on ‘financial inclusion’ and increasing access of an average farmer to farm finance, there is a need to include the dimensions of ‘portfolio management’ and ‘financial planning and budgeting’ in the farming practices. The skill development initiatives should also be augmented by insurance and risk coverage practices such that their effectiveness is increased manifold.

Skill building for activities ‘beyond the farm gate’: The segment of supply chain in Indian agriculture that is closer to the farmer/ producer still remains largely unorganised.

This scenario offers ample scope for the development of ‘off farm livelihood interventions’ in the domains of post-harvest handling, village level storage, repair and maintenance of farm machinery, and farmer-centred farm advisory services, which help in the graduation of several unorganized farm services to organised status and thus attract private investments.

Way Forward

With a fast changing rural countryside and the growing aspiration of the youth, changes in the operational strategies of training institutions are the need of the hour.

Skill programmes should be context and objective-driven with an implication on farm revenues and market efficiencies. Targeted programmes in vernacular languages designed for small and marginal farmers, women, rural youth, and veteran farmers would galvanize and facilitate group efforts towards enhanced training outcomes.

The expertise of the research centres and universities, the commercialisation and market orientation methods of the private sector, novel methods of delivery such as videos and demonstrations, transparent systems of certification and qualification of the trainers and equipping farm extension workers with IT skills may be synergised for training effectiveness.

While the country is bracing itself for the mountainous task of building the skills of millions, it is time for making innovative and holistic efforts towards focusing on the targeted livelihood enhancement and market efficiency with the objective of attaining sustainable agriculture growth.

The writer is Non-Executive Chairperson (Designate), YES Bank

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