Attracting and Retaining Youth in Agriculture

The Objectives of ARYA Project : 
 
(i) To attract and empower the Youth in Rural Areas to take up various Agriculture, allied and service sector enterprises for sustainable income and gainful employment in selected districts. 
 
(ii) to enable the Farm Youth to establish network groups to take up resource and capital intensive activities like processing, value addition and marketing. 
 
(iii) To demonstrate functional linkage with different institutions and stakeholders for convergence of opportunities available under various schemes/program for sustainable development of youth. 

ARYA project will be implemented in 25 States through KVKs, one district from each State. In one district, 200-300 rural youths will be identified for their skill development in entrepreneurial activities and establishment of related micro-enterprise units. KVKs will involve the Agricultural Universities and ICAR Institutes as Technology Partners. At KVKs also one or two enterprise units will be established so that they serve as entrepreneurial training units for farmers. The purpose is to establish economic models for youth in the villages so that youths get attracted in agriculture and overall rural situation is improved. 

Skill development of rural youths will help in improving their confidence levels and encourage them to pursue farming as profession, generate additional employment opportunities to absorb under employed and unemployed rural youth in secondary agriculture and servicerelated activities in rural areas. The concurrent monitoring, evaluation and mid-term correction will be an integral part of project implementation. 

The ICAR-Agricultural Technology Application Research Institute, Jodhpur, Rajasthan organized the Virtual Launching Meeting of Attracting and Retaining Youth in Agriculture (ARYA) Programme at the Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Gudamalani, Barmer - II, Rajasthan. 

   In his address, Kailash Choudhary, Union Minister of State for Agricultural & Farmers’ Welfare emphasized on empowering the farmers to make farming as competitive, profitable and remunerative. The Minister also highlighted the involvement of reputed multinational companies in farming in the coming 4 to 5 years. Choudhary urged the trainees of ARYA Programme to actively involve and establish the enterprises as profitable ventures. He briefed about the importance of forming the Farmers’ Producers’ Organizations (FPOs) and rules and regulations for the effective execution of FPOs at the village level. The Minister also outlined the various schemes sanctioned under the Atma Nirbhar Bharat Project during the COVID-19 Pandemic. 

Briefing about the concept and objectives of the ARYA Programme launched on 25^th July, 2015 by the Hon’ble Prime Minister in Patna, Bihar, Dr. S.K. Singh, Director, ICAR-ATARI, Jodhpur encouraged the rural youth in agriculture to take-up various agricultural, allied and service sector enterprises for sustainable income generation and gainful employment in selected Districts in the programme. 

A total of 64 participants participated in the Webinar