Skilled human resource important for Indian agriculture: ICAR

Bangalore, June 8 (UNI) Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) Director General Mangala Rai today said that there was a need develop skilled human resources in agriculture so that it could be boosted in a commercially in a big way.

Addressing the faculty and the students at the University of Agricultural Sciences here today he said that to create adequate manpower, the government had to bring changes in the style of recruitment on contractual base right at entry level.

He said that a high priority had to be given for the skill development with providing experienced learning.

"For the last ten to 15 years the country had been not getting enough senior agricultural scientists and the number is further trickling down," he said.

The Agriculture Ministry had written last month to all the Chief Ministers to fill all the posts funded by ICAR in their Universities immediately, he said.

Stating that agriculture had to be promoted as an industry, he said huge investment in providing infrastructure facilities was a necessity so as to enable farmers gets higher returns for their produce. The key to this was providing of remunerative prices for the crops grown by the farmer.

He also stressed on the development of adaptation and mitigation technology in view of the climate changes affecting the agricultural production.

UNI