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Key Points

Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar has challenged agricultural universities to play a transformative role in farmer prosperity. He emphasized the need to move beyond food security towards creating farmer entrepreneurs through innovative approaches. The speech highlighted the importance of connecting agricultural research with practical farming strategies. Dhankhar stressed that educational institutions must develop comprehensive programs to support farmers in becoming market-savvy value creators.

Key Points: Dhankhar Calls Agricultural Universities Key to Farmer Prosperity

  • Agricultural universities must bridge gap between research and farming
  • Develop entrepreneurial skills for 100 million farming communities
  • Transform farmers from producers to value-added marketers
  • Increase agri-startups beyond current 6,000 nationwide
3 min read

Agricultural Universities must script new chapter for farmers' prosperity: Vice Prez Dhankhar

Vice President urges agricultural institutions to transform farmers from producers to entrepreneurs through innovation and market-driven approaches

"The farmer has to be prosperous, and this script has to evolve from institutions like yours - Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar"

Coimbatore, April 27

Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar on Sunday said India’s agricultural universities have a crucial role to play in transforming India’s farmers from mere producers to prosperous entrepreneurs.

Addressing the students of the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University here, Dhankhar said the country’s concern earlier was food security, but now the time has come “to move from food security to farmer prosperity”.

“The farmer has to be prosperous, and this script has to evolve from institutions like yours,” he remarked.

The Vice President urged the students to bridge the gap between lab and land. “It must be a seamless connect. Lab and land must be together, and for this, over 730 Krishi Vigyan Kendras must be vibrant centres of interaction with farmers to educate the farmers. But you have to be the pipeline, you have to be supportive of those Krishi Vigyan Kendras. You must connect with the Krishi Vigyan Kendras, and also the Indian Council of Agriculture Research has over 150 institutions focusing on every aspect of agronomy,” he pointed out.

Dhankhar said that all stakeholders must work in unison for the same purpose, and the curriculum of agricultural universities must align to make the farmer an entrepreneur.

“You must persuade the farmer to rise above just being a producer. You must have courses, formal and informal, whereby farmers, their children get attracted to farming as marketeers and value adders. Institutions like yours have the capacity and potential to be crucibles of change for our agro-farm sector,” he added.

He highlighted the need for research to transform perishable goods such as tomatoes into shelf-stable, high-quality products that can multiply the profitability of farmers. Such steps would give agri-entrepreneurship a great flip, he explained.

Dhankhar pointed out that there are 6,000 agri-startups, but for a country of 1.4 billion, a country that has 100 million farming communities, this is not enough. He highlighted the need to increase awareness about the government’s programmes, such as Farmer Producer Organisations (FPO). A budgetary allocation of Rs one lakh crore has been made to fund various activities to enhance and strengthen infrastructure for the farmer, he added.

He underlined the need to empower the farmer by generating awareness, by telling them that the government cooperative system is very robust. This would help in creating “farmer entrepreneurs”, which is the need of the hour, he added.

He urged the students to play a key role in helping to change the mindset of farmers to help them transform from mere producers to value-adders by starting an industry which is based on their produce.

He also highlighted the progress in India’s agriculture sector, with agri-food products constituting over 11 per cent of the country’s total exports.

- IANS

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Reader Comments

P
Priya K.
This is such an important perspective! Farmers are the backbone of our nation and they deserve more than just subsistence living. Agricultural universities can truly be game changers by teaching business skills along with farming techniques. 👏
R
Rahul S.
While I appreciate the vision, I wonder how practical this is for small farmers with limited resources. The article mentions FPOs but doesn't address the challenges of implementation at grassroots level. More focus needed on making these programs accessible to all farmers, not just the educated ones.
A
Ananya M.
The idea of transforming perishable goods into shelf-stable products is brilliant! My uncle is a tomato farmer and every season we see so much wastage. If universities can develop simple preservation techniques that farmers can adopt easily, it would make a huge difference.
S
Sanjay P.
As an agri-startup founder myself, I can confirm there's massive potential here. But we need more than just awareness - we need proper incubation support from these universities. The curriculum should include practical entrepreneurship modules with real-world applications.
M
Meena R.
My father was a farmer and I wish he had access to this kind of education. So happy to see the focus shifting from just production to prosperity. Maybe now more young people will consider agriculture as a viable career option!
K
Karthik V.
The Krishi Vigyan Kendras are doing great work, but they need more funding and better connectivity with universities. Hope this speech translates into concrete action plans with measurable outcomes. The 1 lakh crore allocation sounds promising if used wisely!

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