The next time when walking into a Krishi Bhavan, don’t be surprised to be greeted by a youngster ready to help meet your requirements. For, the Agriculture Department, for the first time, is set to introduce a six-month internship programme under its ongoing Subiksha Kerala project to woo youngsters into farming. Besides, the department plans to rope in educated youngsters with a flair for agriculture as volunteers.
A rough estimate puts the number of applications received in the district through its 97 Krishi Bhavans, 14 block assistant director offices and the office of the Principal Agriculture Officer around 600 when the date for submitting applications expired on July 31.
“We are planning to assign at least two internees in every Krishi Bhavans, block level offices and agriculture farms in their respective local areas,” said Dileep Kumar T., Principal Agriculture Officer, Ernakulam.
Youngsters with graduation or diploma in agriculture or organic farming and even graduates in other disciplines such as management, business administration and social welfare, and VHSE certificate holders will be inducted as internees.
The internees will be given certificates at the end of the programme. Agriculture department sources felt that if there was at least a nominal monetary component then the programme would have evoked far greater response.
Youngsters roped in as internees are likely to benefit from hands-on experience in crop planning and raising, marketing, extension administration and interactions with farmers and experts. It will enable them to be part of a mass movement for augmenting food production in the State besides gaining practical experience in farming.
As for the agriculture department, it will ease the pressure on extension functionaries on the field and facilitate a deeper penetration into the grassroot levels of society and better implementation of various government programmes. With greater interest in farming in general and the government aiming to bring more land under cultivation, the already stretched department could do with all support it can muster.
During the course of their internship, the youngsters will be deployed for collecting information on crop coverage, crop health, anticipated harvesting time, market estimates and challenges, assessing land availability, resource mapping, evaluation of the outcome of past interventions and technological support. Besides, they will also be equipped in front office management and data updation and data entry.