Vol. 8, Issue 9 (2019)

Author(s):
Dr. Subhash Chander and Dr. Satpal Singh

Abstract:
The promotion and development of agribusiness and agro-industry in India can play an important role in diversification of economic activities and generation of value-addition to agricultural produce in rural India. This kind of approach will also have positive impact on agricultural and labour productivity in addition to creating employment opportunities for the majority of the rural population. However there exist a training gap between the actual and desired level of technical and managerial skills among the farmers required for promotion of agribusiness & agro industry in rural India. To develop human resources for agribusiness and self-employment, tailor-made educational and training programmes for entrepreneurship development, agribusiness management and extension are needed. It is high time that all agricultural students are given business orientation through tailor-made courses in business management and entrepreneurship development to empower them to take up self-employment. State Agricultural Universities (SAUs) have strong first-hand experience of rural problems on one hand and a reservoir of multidisciplinary experts on the other. There is a need to strengthen agribusiness and entrepreneururship education through recruiting trained staff, development training of the existing staff, close inter departmental collaboration and effective agricultural extension programmes. The efforts are also required to create a strong interface between SAUs and industry through their involvement in development of course curriculum, providing internship opportunities and on campus recruitment of university students in agro-based industries.