Youth are precious assets for any country who have enormous potential to trigger the science development. In the agrarian country like India where around 75% youth population is living in rural areas, youth can be the key player for agricultural development.

1. WELCOME

2. INDIRA GANDHI KRISHI VISHWAVIDYALAYA
COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE, RAIPUR
Presentation on
“ARYA: Activities & Impact”
For the course of
“MASTER’S SEMINAR”
Presented By
Vijay Ambast
M.Sc. (Agril. Extension)

3. Contents
 Introduction to ARYA.
 Objective.
 Operational Mechanism.
 Why ARYA Programme?
 Project Implementation & Proceeding.
 Activities & Impacts.
 Achievements.
 SWOT Analysis of rural youth & Challenges.
 Suggestion for youth empowerment in agriculture.
 Conclusion.
 Reference.

5. Introduction to ARYA
 Youth are precious assets for any country who have enormous potential to
trigger the science development. In the agrarian country like India where
around 75% youth population is living in rural areas, youth can be the key
player for agricultural development.
 Therefore, channelizing the potential of youth towards agricultural
development is a crucial for the national growth and sustainable livelihood.
 Realizing the importance of rural youth in agricultural development
especially from the point of view of food security of the country, ICAR has
initiated a program on “Attracting and Retaining Youth in Agriculture” on
16th July 2015.
 Under this scheme, special efforts will be taken to attract the rural youth
under the age of 35 years in agriculture so that the increase in the migration
of rural youth towards cities is controlled.

7. Objective
 To attract and empower the youth in rural areas to take up
various agriculture, allied and service sector enterprises for
sustainable income and gainful employment in selected
districts.
 To enable the farm youth to establish network groups to
take up resource and capital-intensive activities like
processing, value addition and marketing.
 To demonstrate functional linkage with different institutions
and stakeholders for convergence of opportunities available
under various schemes/ program for sustainable
development of youth.

8. Operational Mechanism

10. Project Implementation & Proceeding
 In first phase, ARYA project has been implemented in 25 states in
25 selected districts through KVKs.
 In each district, about 200 rural youth have been identified for
their skill upgradation in entrepreneurial development and
establishment of related micro-enterprise units.
 The areas in which micro-enterprises units could be established
are Apiary, Mushroom, Seed Processing, Soil Testing, Poultry,
Dairy, Goatery, Carp-Hatchery, Vermi-compost, etc., KVKs
involved State Agricultural Universities and ICAR Institutes as
Technology Partners.
 At KVKs, one or two enterprise unit's haves been established so
that they serve as entrepreneurial training units for farmers.

12. Activities & Impact
 The oriented youth groups may function as role model for other youths by
demonstrating the potentiality of the Agri-based enterprises and also by
imparting training to others.
 Skill development of rural youth is helping in regaining their confidence
levels to pursue farming as a profession, besides generating additional
employment opportunities to absorb under employed and unemployed
rural youth in secondary agriculture and service-related activities in rural
areas.
 Under the project, 4280 youths in various groups have been oriented for
establishing micro-entrepreneurial units in 25 districts listed in Table 1.
 In taking up various enterprises as listed in Table 2.
 The number of youth engaged in different enterprises is given in Table 3.

16. Achievements
1. CAR-CIBA sighed a MoU with Sri Sathvika Aqua Agro Industries Private
Limited and developed cost effective and quality feed shrimp using
indigenous feed ingredients for vannamei farming, and the feed is
promoted as the ‘Vannami plus’, under ARYA programme.
2. Under ICAR-ATARI, Umaim 5 KVKs namely; Senapati in Manipur, Karbi
Anglong in Assam, workha in Nagaland, Lunglei in Mizoram and North
Sikkim in Sikkim are implementing the ARYA project for the benefit
of rural youth in their respective districts. A brief achievement made
by the implementing KVKs during 2016-17.
3. In senapati (Manipur) 120 rural youth got training about mushroom
cultivation, piggery, poultry, fisheries, large cardamom.

17. 4. In Lunglei (Mizoram) 145 rural youth benefited with various
enterprises such as piggery, poultry, mushroom and bee keeping.
5. In workha (Nagaland) 90 rural youth succeed in attaining several
enterprises like mushroom, poultry, piggery and cut flowers.
6. In north Sikkim 90 rural youth gained diverse enterprises like
cardamom cultivation in protected cultivation, piglet cultivation, off
season vegetable production under walk in tunnel.
Cont.

18. Swot Analysis of rural youth
Strengths:
• They possess good energy.
• They have capacity & ability to produce more.
• Due to their exposure to media, they are capable of accepting new ideas in farming.
Weakness:
• Elderly farmers in the family takes the decision in farming.
• They lack training in improved methods & skills.
• Non- remunerative prices to agricultural produce.
• Agriculture is not perceived as lucrative vocation.

19. Opportunities:
• Increased market for agricultural produce & secondary agricultural commodities,
which ensures good income to young farmers.
• Training opportunities through KVKs & other training institutions.
• Farmer friendly policies, incentives & schemes of the Government in the field of agriculture
Threats:
• Increased migration to urban areas.
• Less respect for agriculture profession.
• Poverty & unemployment in rural areas and lack of education.
Cont.

20. Challenges
 Primary sector need skilled youth with business skills to boost
agriculture and allied sector.
 Youth find agriculture activities a burden some are willing to settle
abroad.
 The productivity of primary sector depends on skills and new
technology. It is employing more than 55% population but share in GDP
is only 13.7%.
 The income of rural youth would become sustainable and meaningful.
 New scheme would help develop service sector in rural area by
building entrepreneurial skills.

21. Suggestions for youth empowerment in agriculture
 Investment more in technical and vocational education in agriculture and allied
sectors & creating strong training infrastructure for youth in agriculture.
 Up to date the trainers of the training institutions of agriculture and allied
sectors institutions.
 Encourage group-based youth empowerment programmes in agriculture through
encouraging small farmers to adopt cooperative system , SHGs, FIG.
 Appropriate policy should be framed for encouraging and recognizing the family
farming.
 In rural area facilities like urban area should be created to stop migration, rural
youths preferring farming as profession should be given extra advantages.
 Necessary facilities should be provided in terms of transportation, inputs,
technology, market etc. & improve the market mechanism

22.  State level planning should be made regarding state, national and export
needs of different farm products and based on that farmers should be
motivated to produce various products
 Need to strengthen export strategy, crop wise, model farmers should be
identified, and their services should be taken to motivate other farmers.
 Developing and incorporation of ICTs based tools for multi-domains
information sharing for youth in agriculture.
 Crop insurance system should be farmers' friendly.
 Need to strengthen research to develop location specific models of mix
farming for small and marginal farmers.
 Fund management and irrigation facility should be on priority.
 Assured minimum price should be given to farm product.
Cont.

23. Conclusion
 There is a need of attracting and retaining rural youth in agriculture in India.
For this urgent need is realized to develop attractive strategy and policy by
Government for attracting rural youths towards agriculture.
 The availability of low-cost input, technical assistance, training, availability of
drudgery reducing machinery, arrangement of maintenance of machinery,
capacity building, provision of farmers' friendly market linkage, value addition
procedure, tie up with local institutions, encouragement to the export of agro
products and practical oriented agricultural higher education system are
important areas to focus to attract youths towards agriculture.
 ICAR has initiated ARYA programmes, however more critical efforts are
expected to attract youths towards agriculture as profession not only to feed
stomachs of second largest population of world but also for the sustainable
development of rural India.

24. References:
 Anonymous, (2015). ARYA: Luring youth back to
agriculture, Krishi Jagran (11 August).
 Anonymous, (2016). Souvenir on National youth
convention for attracting and retaining youth in
agriculture, New Delhi.
 Annual Report of KVK, Nagpur (ICAR-CICR).
 Chauhan, N.B. & Patel, J.B. (2014) Socio-economic
aspects of family farming, prepared to present at
5th Regional Committee of IAUA at KAU.
 Anonymous (2015), www.counterview.org Acceded
date:- 13.3.2019

25. THANK YOU