ICAR Sponsored Agro-Tourism Trips Planned for College Students

College students will have now the option to tour agricultural colleges as part of a unique activity. The Association of Indian Universities and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research have inked an agreement to that effect.  

The students will visit ten agricultural universities across the country in groups of 25 as part of the deal. The groups will spend three days touring agricultural universities. A student representative will share their experiences and thoughts at the end of each day. The project will last one year. 

A book and a film about agri-tourism will be produced at the conclusion of the exercise. "The goal is to get them acquainted with agriculture." 

“The majority of the students have little idea what agriculture entails. We need to teach them about the challenges that farmers confront. It's up to us to orient them. We have established a programme for non-agricultural students to visit agricultural universities for this reason," said AIU Secretary-General G. Thiruvasagam, one of the agreement's signatories. 

The ICAR will select 10 agricultural universities for the visit, which will benefit 1,500 students. The AIU and ICAR will cover the costs of the students' visit, as well as their boarding and housing. 

Why is Agriculture Education Important? 

Agriculture is a significant portion of India’s total direct economic output. Our daily needs such as food, clothing, medicine, and even paper come from agriculture. Farmers are the driving force for the Indian economy & for that, we must all be grateful to them. 

Agricultural Education is far more important than just an elective curriculum. The history of agricultural education in India can be traced back to medieval period when study of agriculture was included in the curricula of Nalanda and Takshashila Universities as an important subject. 

However, now the youth of the country doesn’t seem to be that much interested in farming or agriculture. To generate an interest among them this Agro-tourism Initiative has been taken up by ICAR & AIU.