Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu has asked the banks and financial institutions to provide financial assistance to young entrepreneurs in the primary sector.
“The young graduates coming out of institute should think of setting up businesses in order to create more jobs. They should get adequate loans and encouragement from the financial institutions, particularly banks,” he said.
He was addressing students after presenting the Post Graduate Diploma in Management (Agri Business Management) degrees at the fourth Graduation Ceremony of the National Academy of Agricultural Research Management (NAARM) here on Saturday.
In view of rising population, the Vice President cautioned that we should not be complacent on food production despite having achieved food security.
“The population is increasing. We must also be in a position to supply food to the world,” he said.
Pointing out that agriculture sector was facing challenges like climate change, soil health, pests and diseases, he said it was important for researchers and policy makers to make agriculture resilient to climate change.
“We need to increase our research and development expenditure on agriculture, which now stands at less than one per cent. We need to increase this,” he said.
Asking the young graduates to go to villages to understand the problems of farmers first hand, he said they would be able to find solutions if they knew the challenges that the farmers were facing.
Stating that up-to-date information on commodity prices in various markets would help farmers get better price, he related how agricultural commodities fared differently in different markets, much to the disadvantage of farmers.
The course
The institute has conducted 12 batches (from 2009-11 to 2020-22) so far, with a total of 334 students completing the course. The current batch (2021-23) comprised 57 (29 boys and 28 girls) students, according to Ch Srinivasa Rao, Director of NAARM.
The two-year residential programme, with six trimesters, comprises a course work aggregating 100 credits. The courses includes a summer internship of 6-8 weeks.
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