Kolkata : The state government will organize workshops to prepare a comprehensive road map for skill development of farmers to cater to the needs of those in agriculture and allied sectors both in India and abroad.
Senior and concerned officials of the state agriculture, agriculture marketing, fisheries, horticulture and animal husbandry departments will meet tentatively on June 30 to discuss the road map in details.
Citing an example to elaborate on the need of such training, a senior official of the state agriculture department said: “Our farmers are experts in paddy cultivation. But they do not have any certificates giving recognition to their skill against which their capabilities can be judged. Thus, a certificate after completing a certain level of the proposed skill development programme will be beneficial to them.”
He added: “If countries like Israel want to cultivate paddy and approaches us for an expert to help them initiate the same, then a farmer who can practically carry it out on a cottah of land will be of more help than one with high qualification in this particular sector. Now, the skill development programme will help the farmers to get a recognition against which their capabilities may be judged.
” Thus, almost within a month after successfully organizing the zonal workshop with Odisha, Jharkhand, Bihar and Sikkim to prepare strategy for the skill development programme, the Bengal government is going to hold the state-level workshop in which all the departments will discuss matters including framing of different training modules and syllabus. Each of the department will raise the issues which are yet to be addressed in this connection.
The zonal workshop held on May 25 in Kolkata saw senior officials from all the five states attending the meet. Bengal was given the responsibility considering its achievements and availability of resource persons in agriculture and its allied sectors.
Some of the syllabuses are ready but framing of the rest still remains to be done and is a huge task, the official said: “The syllabus has to be sent to the Agriculture Skill Council of India (ASCI) for approval. The training for the syllabus that is ready could start by the end of this year.
“Different ASCI registered institutions having necessary infrastructure and resource persons will be allowed to give 200-hour training to the people from grassroot level. Complete implementation of the project will take some time but once it is implemented, it will be of immense benefit to the farmers.”
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