Introduction
It is only when we discuss the Indian economy that our thoughts automatically turn to agriculture and the dependence of the Indian economy on agricultural work. In our country, 16% of GDP comes from agriculture. India is a country where 58% of the total population is dependent on agriculture for their livelihood. This is our current situation, but this time, it is a matter of concern whether our future generations are interested in choosing agriculture to earn money.
The simple answer is “NO”
Seventy-five percent of the total agricultural population in India is unwilling to allow their next generation to be dependent on agricultural work. The present generation is not willing to associate themselves with agricultural work. The fact is that the current youth in the country slowly moving away from agriculture, with 2,000 farmers quitting farming every day. If we analyse deeply, we will see that behind this reluctance towards agricultural work is the continuous changing of social need and financial uncertainty of agriculture. We then discuss the issues one by one.
first, we analysed the social infrastructure and see that the present youth is slowly becoming accustomed to Western manners. In our country, like other developed countries, urbanization has grown rapidly. Young people are moving towards the city to achieve a better life because the city gives us all the opportunities that Sometimes are not necessary for life, but a beautiful life or entertainment. In addition to these basic needs of food, clothing, shelter, education, health, the current youth want much more. They want to associate themselves with a profession that “Sound Cool” as an example the corporate world and involve some intellectual activity. Those kinds of occupation and organization are not present in our village till now. After 2014 the internet revolution come to India and most of the Indian population got internet access at a cheap cost That’s why we can see the whole world very quickly and feel virtual. When we get some virtual taste of a new world an unfulfilled desire creates in our mind and we want to explore the world more and more so city life is the best option for all those things.
Historical And Present of Agriculture
In ancient times agriculture was given a very high place in our literature, even in many kinds of literature the great and powerful kings were proud to associate themselves with agricultural work, for example, we seeking Janaka and his Tillage work in “Ramayana”, but it was the 7th century BCE now time and society changed rapidly. I still remember when I used to ask my school friends whose father was involved in farming, “what did your father do?” They are a bit unprepared and say “Do Nothing” or some other like “Nothing much Special only Agriculture”. A mental imperfection and inferiority complex is hidden in those answers. The present society is never willing to take the farmers and agriculture to that level. When someone survives with such humiliation in childhood and most of the young age, how can we expect the present youth to move towards agriculture?
Why not Agriculture
Now we look at it economically, the current economic infrastructure in agriculture in our country is very unstable. It is almost impossible to get a stable and consistent income from here, Because our agriculture production depends on the monsoon, and some regions of India are not properly covered by irrigation facilities mostly the Chota Nagpur plateau region of India. Not only production our agriculture depends on agriculture product market value. Sometimes for the favourable climatic condition, the crop production is magnified. When there is a lot of production now the Supply and Demand rule of economics works, Farmers are inadvertently forced to sell crops at lower prices.
It's quite normal in our agriculture market the oversaturation of cereal crops, we produce more than how much we need. In India, we don't have a suitable facility and technique to handle overproduction. Then, some middlemen are generated, they Store huge amounts of essential food grain from farmers with low prices and manipulate the supply chain of food grain, earning a huge margin profit.
A question will be raised, why farmer doesn't wait for good market value? It sounds intellectual and rational but practically impossible for the Indian farmers. When a farmer starts his cultivation, he needs a lot of liquid cash so that cash is coming from agriculture loans, individual loans, and so on, and the other hand he also has a family in this period he needs to feed and care for them so he needs money so he needs more loan or pending fees. For a farmer those agriculture productions are the only source of income, So the sooner he can sell the crop, the sooner he will get the liquid money in his hand and relief from a loan pending fees and other liabilities. The current agriculture system is a trap for farmers. Sometimes government comes and says “Agricultural loan waiver” But what about other liabilities, pending fees what about that! Those agricultural products are the only source of income now how he survives all the year Are there any plans!
Now we mix the social and economic structure and rethink combinedly, Marriage is an important chapter in social cohesion in Indian society. Here too the farmer and his family are deeply affected. We will judge impartially at present no family is spontaneously willing to establish relations with a family whose financial income depends on only agricultural work. Because this is the ultimate truth, agriculture does not give us financial security.
After all of those problems now we question rise what we can do?
First, we need to stop, Great Indian Agriculture Brain Drain.
Great Indian Agriculture Brain Drain
In India, there are lots of agricultural universities and institutions and most of the students who graduated from there are going banking sector or other non-agriculture jobs.
As a result, all the talent that we were creating for agriculture is being used for other purposes. Though 80-90 percent of students studying agriculture belong to the farming community, most of them prefer to choose a different career. At present, around 0.4 million students are enrolled in agricultural universities and institutes. But sadly, only 0.1 million students manage to graduate. Most of them (between 70 and 80 percent) join the banking sector.
Let’s Stop the Drainage
At that point we need the support of the government; Both the state government and the central government should recruit students in agriculture-related posts who are educated in agriculture-based education.
“Krishi Prayukti Sahayak” is a ground-level agriculture post in West Bengal. The ground-level staff has a huge responsibility like supplying hybrid seed, passing new information, and observation of the area. Unfortunately, this post is not reserved for agriculture students any other department student also applies in this post, so the lack of skill is an emerging problem in this Post.
As We previously discussed most agriculture student belongs from agricultural backgrounds family so they need financial support for their higher studies. I know that government provides a lot of scholarships but those are not enough to cover the whole agriculture student. Government should provide them with some workshop experience with the collaboration of some big MNC and domestic companies. It helps to build an overall understanding of how the international agriculture market work.
Secondly, we need to more corporate in Agriculture farmland, award agricultural farmland each unpredictable because of Scattered and irregular investments. Government has no control over the investment and middlemen. Our agriculture supply chain is so much was unorganized, if in single hand government invest in farmland for modernization and try to organize the whole system image in a continuous food value chain, then search investment create a huge liability for the government. That's why we need the domestic corporate players, who put their money into investment and modernization of the overall rural atmosphere. We need to understand that the farmland is our God gifted asset, and is not a liability.
An Inspiring story, House to Cooperative house
Then we need to think about, household incomes, if the whole family farmland, then it will be Gambling if you're getting a price, you are a winner, and otherwise, you lost everything and cause farmer suicides. We need to stop this economic gambling at this point, we need to the women empowerment. There is the greatest example in India of what women can do and how they built a 224-million-dollar organization, Lijjat Papad, and those Women are Lijjat Sister. It's a great and inspiring story we should learn and understand the framework of cooperative society and try to apply all the provinces of India. There are only 2% the of contribution comes from food processing in our GDP. 21st-century people have no time for proper cooking, the whole world is running. Now, the relevance of food processing will emerge day by day. We have a lot of potential to be a poster boy of food processing in the world food market.
Let’s make it cool
Last not least, if we want that our youth are attracted to agriculture then we need it "Cool" atmosphere in agriculture work. First, we need to encourage our youth to agriculture start and be farm entrepreneurs, for that reason they feel a corporate life in farm work. The most important thing we need to use is the power of social media and digital marketing strategy. We need to promote more and run trends so that the present youth are more attracted to agricultural work. I believe urbanization is a great thing but the reluctance of the youth towards agriculture is a terrible symptom. If a producing country like India loses its production rate, it will have a profound effect on India and the entire food supply chain of the world.
Authors
Tirtharaj Patra1 and Dr. Princy Thakur2
M.Sc. Soil Science & Agriculture Chemistry1, Assistant Professor, Department of Soil Science & Agriculture Chemistry2
Lovely Professional University, Phagwara, Jalandhar, Punjab
Corresponding email id; patratirtharaj@gmail.com
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