Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu has asked banks and financial institutions to help young entrepreneurs in the primary sector. "Young graduates should consider starting their own businesses in order to create more jobs." He believes they should receive adequate loans and encouragement from financial institutions, particularly banks.
He was speaking to students after presenting Post Graduate Diploma in Management (Agri-Business Management) degrees at the National Academy of Agricultural Research Management's (NAARM) fourth Graduation Ceremony on Saturday.
In light of the rising population, the Vice President cautioned that despite achieving food security, we should not become complacent about food production.
"The population is growing." "We must also be able to supply food to the rest of the world," he added. Noting that the agriculture sector was facing challenges such as climate change, soil health, pests, and diseases, he stated that it was critical for researchers and policymakers to make agriculture climate-resilient.
"We need to increase agricultural research and development spending, which is currently less than 1%." "This needs to be increased," he said.
He asked the young graduates to go to villages to understand farmers' problems firsthand, saying that if they knew the challenges that farmers faced, they would be able to find solutions.
He stated that having up-to-date information on commodity prices in various markets would help farmers get better prices, and he related how agricultural commodities fared differently in different markets, much to farmers' detriment.
So far, the institute has run 12 batches (from 2009-11 to 2020-22), with 334 students completing the course. According to Ch Srinivasa Rao, Director of NAARM, the current batch (2021-23) included 57 students (29 boys and 28 girls). The two-year residential programme includes six trimesters of course work totaling 100 credits. The courses includes a summer internship of 6-8 weeks.
