Hyderabad: Facilitating rural youth in agri for a profitable profession

Hyderabad: As part of its initiatives to retain youth in agriculture, Cornell Sathguru Foundation for Development (CSFD) with technical support of Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University (PJTSAU) and financial support from Aurobindo Pharma Foundation is organising a training programme for rural youth of Sangareddy district during Feb 24-29. CSFD extensively works towards improving agricultural productivity of small and marginal farmers' in villages of Telangana and thereby enhancing their socio-economic conditions.

This training programme would be held at Agriculture Research Station (ARS) at Tornala, Siddipet, Telangana. This 6-day training programme would focus on training youth on four modules namely – agriculture, horticulture, animal husbandry, and agribusiness. Youth would be trained through classroom sessions, experiential learning and exposure trips to model village, research station, incubation center, and farm implements and machinery center at PJTSAU. The training programme would be facilitated by Dr. Jagan Mohan Rao, Associate Director of Research, Dr. Ramanjaneyulu, Senior Scientist (Agro) and head of ARS Tornala and 15 professors in the Agri sector from PJTSAU.

Reflecting on the youth training programme, CSFD Director Hemalatha Vijayaraghavan stated "Youth are the future of food security and it is extremely important to encourage youth participation in agriculture. We trust that the enhanced skill achieved through this training programme will evoke the interest among youth and spark ideas to take agriculture as a profitable profession". Dr. Ramanjaneyulu from PJTSAU has stated "We are happy to train and provide technical support to young farmers. Strategically farmer trainings are a great path way to facilitate young energies to see agriculture as a profitable and exciting career path".