By Ranjan K Baruah
The recent lockdown has proved that we can live without luxury items or goods but we cannot live without basic needs, which include food items. When the lockdown started, there were apprehensions about food supply and availability of food but so far things are moving well and we did not see any shortage of food.
No shortage of food means the 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 is 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 migrant labours or workers have gone back to their native place. This 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, then it is not limited to farming. The recent progress in technology has added many new areas where someone who is not a farmer can also make a career related to agriculture.
There are colleges and universities which 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 choose to study different courses offered by agricultural universities based in different parts of the country. In the North East, we have universities like Central Agricultural University, Imphal or Assam Agricultural University and others.
From academic perspectives, agriculture is a 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 institutes like Central Institute of Fisheries Education and National Dairy Research Institute. There are research institutes like Indian Institute of Vegetable Research, Central Potato Research Institute, Indian Institute of Agricultural Biotechnology, etc.
There are many designations associated with career in agriculture. Few options are agricultural engineering, horticulturist, dairy technology, poultry farming, pisciculture, agronomists, agricultural economics, agri-business management and floriculture.
Individuals who have degrees from agricultural universities may get government jobs as there are departments of agriculture and allied services, researchers in different institutes and teaching. 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.
We will 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.
(The author is a career mentor and can be reached at [email protected] or 8473943734 for any career related queries)