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Samastipur : Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmer’s Welfare Radha Mohan Singh on December 3, 2017, said that it is our main objective to attract youth including school children towards agricultural education.
Singh mentioned that Government of India has started celebrating many National and International Days related to agriculture for its integrated and rapid development. He was addressing a function at Dr Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Pusa, Samastipur, Bihar, on the occasion of National Agricultural Education Day on December 3.
The Agriculture Minister said that two years back Government of India decided to celebrate National Agricultural Education Day on December 3 because it is the birthday of our first Union Agriculture Minister and Former President of India, Dr Rajendra Prasad. Singh further added that all State Agricultural Universities and ICAR Institutes are celebrating National Agricultural Education Day in a big way since then, according to a PIB release.
Singh mentioned that the Government of India has started implementing many programmes towards strengthening Agricultural Education, Research and Extension for a long term and sustainable development in agriculture. With the development of new technologies, agricultural trends are changing daily. He expressed happiness that ICAR has initiated many new programmes to enhance the quality of higher agricultural education in the country. The government of India increased the budget of Agricultural Education by 47.4% this year as compared to the financial year 2013-14, he said.
The Agriculture Minister said that in order to adopt quality and holistic approach to higher agricultural education, the Fifth Dean Committee Report has been implemented in all the Agricultural Universities. This is first-of-its-kind that all Graduate Level Courses of Agriculture and its related subject have been declared as Professional Courses, in which agricultural graduates will be able to get a better opportunity. Agricultural graduates will now get more benefit as their degree has now become similar to the engineering degree. He also mentioned that agricultural graduates will get more opportunities to go abroad for higher education.