Introduction

The ARYA project is very important of rural youth in agricultural development with respect to the security of India. ICAR initiated a program on “Attracting & Retaining Youth in Agriculture” on the recommendation with of Expenditure Finance Committee(EFC) with total outlay of Rs. 100 crore for 25 Centres.

ICAR-ATARI, Jodhpur is one of the nodal institutes which are implementing the ARYA project through the KVKs, Banswara (MPUAT, Udaipur) in Rajasthan and KVKs Rajkot-1 (Junagadh Agricultural University, Junagadh) in Gujaratduring 2016-17. The younger generation will be interested in taking to farming as a profession only if farming becomes both economically and intellectually attractive. The future of food security in our country will depend on both the strengthening of the ecological foundations essential for sustainable agriculture, as well as attracting the educated youth to farming and allied professions such as animal husbandry, inland and marine fisheries, agro-forestry, agro-processing and agri-business. It will therefore be useful if the State Government launches a special programme for enabling youth to remain in villages and take to scientific agriculture. The programme, which can be titled “Empowerment of Youth in Agriculture” should help young farm women and men to earn income from both farm and non-farm enterprises. There are great opportunities for strengthening the services sector in rural areas. A group of young farmers consisting of agricultural, veterinary, home science, engineering and commerce graduates could jointly organize Agricultural Transformation Centres in every block to bring about a technological up gradation of farm operations and farming enterprises as wall to provide demand driven services. Such centres will undertake tasks like pest-proofing of villages and value addition to primary produce. Young people ought to be trained to take up agricultural, mineral, commercial and industrial production using contemporary systems and promote benefits of modern information and communication technology to gain access to existing and new markets. Access to credit should also be facilitated to promote youth participation in agricultural and other sustainable livelihood projects. Young farmers need to be turned into agricultural entrepreneurs who undertake agricultural and allied activities such as raising and marketing of crops, fertilizers and other agricultural inputs of agriculture, dairy, plantation, horticulture etc. They are envisioned to raise agricultural production through mechanization, irrigation and application of technologies.