Dear Sir
I am very happy to send my paper on Youth in Agriculture . I am from M.S.Swaminathan Research Foundation ,India
Attracting and Retaining youth in Agriculture (ARYA) (Creating enabling factors through Youth Cadre to achieve Agriculture productivity, Nutrition security and livelihood opportunities at door step).
Introduction
ARYA delivers solutions for sustainable agriculture and the enabling environment. This livelihood promotions program is based on training. It has interest to create young cadre who will be gaining hand on experience in farm mechanization and repairing, reduce fertilizers doses, organic practices and crop production with integrated pest and nutrient management, soil nutritional management and human health. This program has also aim to contribute our tangible to address climate change issues, zero hunger challenge and International year of Soil, which may help to produce enough to contribute towards food security and livelihood opportunity, required for the growing youth world population.
About the Program
The design program, package of practices, ICT tool and R&D unit will be part to attract and retain youth in sustainable agriculture. It will carry out livelihood opportunities as focus activities for the agriculture where soil and zero hunger challenge are two essential factors that need to be addressed urgently. The interest of youth need to be supported through new profitable agriculture applications and concepts, which provide solutions to the value chain and to end-users practices to adopt sustainable agriculture as livelihood option.
Another focus is to develop tools and services around the agri-products and business, farm mechanization and handling technological issues, value chain, communication, market strategy etc. which can be adopt as enablers to support the state and agriculture missions.
The theory cum practical training for a month will offer within real life agribusiness environment. Candidates will be guided during the training program about the key sectors and the ways to get engage with them.
Responsibilities of training
Develop modules and solutions for Livelihood and decision support systems for improved crop production, nutrition and farm mechanization in agriculture and horticulture
Working in a multidisciplinary team and give support to other agricultural research activities
Net-working with experts in MSSRF and Agriculture line departments and participate in co-operations with external partners state/National agencie.
Eligibility
The Year 2015 marks the beginning of mobilising science and integrated efforts by all nations to ensure that by the year 2025 no child, woman or man goes to bed hungry and that no one’s physical or mental potential is stunted by malnutrition. These were also the goals of the World Food Congress held in Rome in 1974 but they remain until today just desirable goals for over 800 million children, women and men who will go to bed hungry tonight. How then are we going to meet the Zero Hunger Challenge by 2025?
Hunger has three dimensions. First, a majority of the hungry suffer from under-nutrition, mainly due to inadequate purchasing power. Second, large numbers suffer from protein hunger due to insufficient consumption of pulses, egg, milk and other protein rich foods. Third, over 2 billion, many of them being pregnant women, suffer from hidden hunger caused by the deficiency in the diet of iron, zinc, iodine, Vitamin A, Vitamin B12 etc. The Zero Hunger Porgramme involves concurrent attention to all these three forms of hunger.
The extent of prevalence of hunger and malnutrition also depends on the availability of food at affordable prices, economic and social (particularly gender), access to food and absorption of the food in the body, which is a function of access to clean drinking water, sanitation and nutritional literacy. Thus, there is need to take a holistic view of the zero hunger challenge, taking into account both the food and non-food components of food availability, access and absorption.
The UN has identified the following five major components of the Action Plan for achieving the elimination of hunger
These are:
- 100% access to adequate food all year round
- Zero stunted children less than 2 years of age
- All food systems are sustainable
- 100% increase in smallholder productivity and income
- Zero loss or waste of food
All the above require intensive scientific research and support. For example, food availability needs research on the ever-green resolution methodology, so that increases in productivity can be achieved in perpetuity without associated ecological harm. Economic access will need a biovillage approach to rural development so that both on-farm income and market driven non-farm employment opportunities are maximised.
2016 has been designated as the International Year of Pulses. We should make a major effort to bridge the demand-supply gap in pulses, so that protein hunger can be addressed.
To overcome hidden hunger, we need a major effort in biofortification, so that agricultural remedies can be provided to the major nutritional maladies.
2015 marks the beginning of the UN Decade for Sustainable Development. Sustainable human wellbeing cannot be achieved without meeting the zero hunger challenge. Therefore, scientists should intensify their work in the areas of environmentally sound ever-green revolution, pulses production, bioforification and improved post-harvest management. In addition, there is need to pay attention from the scientific angle to the issues related to the Swachh Bharat initiative of our Prime Minister. For its success Swachh Bharat will need intensification of research in the areas of bioremediation, biodiversity conservation, biomass utilisation and biohappiness
Candidates with 12th Pass / Fail or 10th Pass /Fail are eligible for this Course. Priority will be given to the candidates coming from Rural Areas and having direct hands-on experience in agriculture and related field.
Instruction language
Tamil / English
Proposed Program
The proposed program will be taken in month of April/May for 30 days in house training. Each section of program has divided in theoretical and practical cum hands on training activities. The aim of proposed program to make youth eager to take a sustainable agriculture as a career opportunity within local environment perceptive, and then we will be happy to receive their application in English with mentioned details such as your possible starting date and expectations on proposed program. Suggested ideas coming by the participants will be included in the list or refine in the program.
Please apply via our application system: www.mssrf.org
Impact Evaluation Questions
The impact evaluation will be designed to answer the following questions:
Will this training lead to increases retention of youth in agriculture activities?
Will this training lead to the use of higher quality inputs, such as farm mechanization, seed banking, agrochemicals, organic application, value addition, market strategy etc?
Will this training change the value or provide source of soft loans that can be obtained as a livelihood options by the youth?
Will the training increase crop income and yields and create livelihood options?
Measuring Results of Program
MSSRF uses multiple sources to measure results. After each above tabular section the output data will be used during compact training workshop. Independent evaluations will be taken as post-compact. Monitoring data will be generated by the program implementers and specifically covers the formed group of youth who will be received training under the program. The program will also consider the youth adoption exercises precisely to monitor who have adopted with/without the training. MSSRF and Agri-department will invests in independent impact evaluations, which estimate a counterfactual to assess what will have happened in the absence of the investment.
Regards,
Dr.N.Parasuraman
N.Parasuraman