12th plan will see shift from primary to secondary agriculture

CHENNAI: The coming 12th five year plan,beginning this April, would witness a shift from primary to secondary agriculture in the country and the latter would provide value addition to agricultural products, a top official said today.

"The secondary agriculture would be providing value addition to agricultural products, creating facilities for primary processing and stress management in agriculture. The 12th plan will see the shift from primary to secondary agriculture," S Ayyappan, Director General, Indian Council for Agricultural Research, said.

"The value addition could be by grading the different quality of products, cold storage facilities to take up primary processing and taking steps to control soil and water degradation," he told reporters here on the sidelines of a function.

Concerned over the shortage of manpower in the agriculture sector, ICAR was planning for a national agriculture education project, he said.

"One thing we see is the manpower shortage. So, we have to improve the course curriculum, faculty competence, infrastructure development such as hostels, hands-on and skill development and student exchange programmes," he noted.

Ayyappan said ICAR was thinking over the concepts of 'Farmer First' and 'Student Ready' to bridge the gap between the educational institutions and the industry needs.

Aspiring to produce quality agricultural graduates who can become "agri-preneurs" in the next five year plan, he said the government is spending nearly Rs 8-10 lakh for a bachelor degree student, Rs 12-15 lakh for a post-graduate student and Rs 20 lakh for research students.

The 12th plan would also focus on rain-fed agriculture for capacity building, he added.