Strengthen agri education to keep pace with changes: Singh

Agriculture trends are changing daily in view of new technological developments, Union minister Radha Mohan Singh said today, stressing upon the need for strengthening education in the sector.
The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has initiated many new programmes to raise the quality of higher education in this field, he said.
The agriculture minister said the Centre has increased the budget of agricultural education by 47.4 per cent this year, as compared to the 2013-14 fiscal.
Singh was speaking at Dr Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University in Bihar on the occasion of National Agricultural Education Day.
He said the main objective of the government is to attract youth, including school children, towards agricultural education.

In order to adopt quality and holistic approach to higher agricultural education, he said, the Fifth Dean Committee Report has been implemented in all the Agricultural Universities.

"This is first-of-its-kind that all graduate Level courses of agriculture and its related subject have been declared as professional courses, in which agricultural graduates will be able to get a better opportunity from professional work in the future," Singh said.
The agricultural graduates will benefit as this degree has now become similar to the engineering degree, he said, adding that they will also get more opportunities to go abroad for higher education.
"Fifth Dean Committee Report, guidelines have been prepared for necessary administrative educational standards for the construction and implementation of contemporary courses for the subjects covered in agricultural education," Singh said.