Vice Prez Venkaiah Naidu shares concerns for 'Agro Brain Drain'
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New Delhi, Jan 20: Vice President Venkaiah Naidu has called for measures to prevent 'agro brain drain' and attract educated youth to take up farming as a profession. He opined that the future of Indian agriculture lies in the hands of technology-driven farming practices, strengthened by well-informed and modern-minded farmers. The Vice President was speaking at the virtual inauguration of the National Dialogue on “Indian Agriculture Towards 2030: Pathways for Enhancing Farmers’ Income, Nutritional Security and Sustainable Food Systems” organized by NITI Aayog, Ministry of Agriculture, and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
In his inaugural speech, the Vice President stressed that agriculture is the pillar of India’s ecology, culture and civilization. He also called for changing focus from food security to nutrition security. The Vice President also put light on the need to reduce agri-input costs and called for promoting organic farming in a broader manner.
He expressed his concern over the increasing lack of interest in farming among the educated youth and said that changing the socio-economic milieu, increasing agri-input costs and diminishing returns have turned agriculture into a less preferred profession among the youth. In order to deal with this problem, he called for the establishment of strong lab–farm links and farmer–industry interaction to turn the farmers into ‘agri-entrepreneurs’. The Vice President also suggested for creation of ‘Business Incubation Centres,' that would eventually direct aspiring farmers in the right direction of this field.
Naidu also emphasized on the need to drift away from chemical farming. He said, organic farming is beneficial for all stakeholders including the farmers, the consumers and the environment. He called for making organic agriculture a mass movement not only for a ‘wealthy nation’ but also a ‘healthy nation’. The Vice President termed agriculture as the soul of the country and said it is critical not only for food security but also the economy of the country and the livelihoods.
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India, currently, is largely dealing with the issue of 'Brain Drain' but the Vice President's recent statement proves to be the first instance for India to have addressed the issue at a national level, in concern with 'agriculture sector', that is believed to be the core of Indian economy. Brain Drain can be described as the process in which the most talented workers of a country immigrate to another country. India's problem of Brain Drain remains to be the foremost challenge that is to be tackled through the Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative.