Sahakar Mitra Scheme on Internship Programme: Government’s latest swadeshi push to Agriculture

The Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Narendra Singh Tomar launched the Sahakar Mitra Scheme on Internship Programme(SIP), a program that will provide young professionals with an opportunity of practical exposure and learning from the working of the National Cooperative Development Corporation(NCDC). The minister said that this scheme will be helpful to youth and also praised the NCDC for several such initiatives in the cooperative sector entrepreneurship development ecosystem.

This scheme is one of the latest schemes by the government since the Prime Minister launched the Atma Nirbhar campaign to achieve self-sustainability for the country. The NCDC has been part of such initiatives to provide innovative solutions for the cooperative sector. The scheme will provide paid internships to attract the youth. The scheme would also rope in professionals from various academic institutions to develop professionals that can take various roles in the Farmers Producers Organizations (FPO).

The scheme also aims to train youth for entrepreneurial roles to tap into the large scale potential of the market. The scheme will provide the interns with valuable field experience.

Students who have are graduates in Agriculture and Allied Subjects, Information Technology (IT) or those who have done their MBA in Agri-Business, Cooperation, Finance, International Trade, Forestry, Rural Development, and Project Management are all eligible for the scheme.

Under the scheme, the interns will be given financial support for four months for which a separate fund has been made.

The government push is coming at a time when COVID-19 pandemic is expected to shrink the global economy and governments are looking to soften the blow. Agriculture has been growing at an impressive rate and was one of the few sectors that showed a bright picture after the recent GDP Data were released. There are several initiatives like special package for bee farming, encouragement of diversification of crops by various states, and farmer specific COVID packages to give India a well-needed push to the next level.