Ranjan K Baruah
The recent lock down has proved that we can live without luxury items or goods but we cannot live without basic needs which include food items. When lock down started there was much question related to food supply and availability of foods but so far things are moving well and we did not see any shortage of food. No shortage of foods means credit goes to all our farmers who contribute for all of us. There is no doubt that agriculture in India is the main source of livelihood for millions of individuals. Agriculture is the primary source of livelihood for about 58 per cent of India’s population.
When it comes to agriculture or food industry then our farmers have been doing well though there are more scopes and opportunities in future. The Indian food and grocery market are the world’s sixth largest, with retail contributing 70 per cent of the sales.
We have been affected by COVID 19 pandemic and now we have to look for our careers which can be sustainable. We have seen that migrated labours or workers have gone back to their native place which brings more challenges for young people when it comes to employment. There are more opportunities in the field of agriculture and let us explore agriculture as career options in next few editions.
When we talk about career in agriculture than it is not only limited to farming. Recent progress and especially technological revolution has added many new areas where someone who is not a farmer can also make career related to agriculture. There are colleges and universities that offer courses related to agriculture. Animal husbandry or works related to livestock are also linked with studies of agriculture which makes it a big area to explore from career perspectives. Anyone who wants to get engaged with agricultural careers may chose to study different courses offered by agricultural universities based in different parts of the country. In North East India we have universities like Central Agricultural University, Imphal or Assam Agricultural University apart from others.
From academic perspectives, agriculture is a very vast subject and it has a number of branches like horticulture, crop science, dairy, fisheries, agronomy, animal husbandry, etc.
These courses are available in different agricultural universities or colleges. Apart from universities, there are also institutes like Central Institute of Fisheries Education, National Dairy Research Institute, etc. There are research institutes like Indian Institute of Vegetable Research, Central Potato Research Institute, Indian Institute of Agricultural Biotechnology, etc.
There are many designation associated with career in agriculture. Few of the areas of career options includes agricultural engineering , horticulturists , dairy technology , poultry farming, pisciculture, agronomists, agricultural economics ,agri-business management , floriculture , etc. Individuals who possess degrees from agricultural universities may get chance to work with government as there are departments of agriculture and allied services, researchers in different institutes, teaching , etc .
But there are also opportunities for individuals who are not from agricultural universities but may be part of career in agriculture which includes banking, sales and marketing, etc.
We shall publish different options related to agriculture in our forthcoming editions. As mentioned earlier there are many scopes and opportunities related to this field. We need to explore all options and plan our career related to agriculture. One must remember that employability skills are must if we want to be successful in any field which includes agriculture. Let us be positive at the time of lock down and together we can beat COVID 19 and make our careers in the field of agriculture.
(Ranjan K Baruah is a career mentor and can be reached at
[email protected] or 8473943734 for any career related queries)