Attracting and Retaining Youth in Agriculture (ARYA)

Retaining youth in Agriculture and making agriculture more profitable are big challenges now a day. Also, there is a continuous increase in the migration of rural youth to urban areas. On the other hand, small land holding poles challenge to food security for increasing population. Thus, realizing the importance of the rural youth in agricultural development and in a bid to create interest and confidence among rural youth in agriculture through various skill development training and encourage them to pursue farming as profession, generate additional employment opportunities to absorb under employed and unemployed rural youth in secondary agriculture and service related activities in rural areas, Indian Council of Agricultural Research initiated a programme “Attracting and Retaining Youth in Agriculture” through 25 identified KVKs of this country. In each district, 200-300 rural youths is identified for their skill development in entrepreneurial activities and establishment of related micro-enterprise units in the area of Apiary, Mushroom, Seed Processing, Soil testing, Poultry, Dairy, Goatry, Carp-hatchery, Vermi-compost etc.

Present ARYA centres under ICAR-ATARI Kolkata areKVK South 24 Paraganas (Nimpith), Uttar Dinajpur, Hooghly, Purulia of West Bengal and KVK Nayagarh, Cuttack, Puri, Sambalpur, Ganjam-I of Odisha.

ARYA Objectives

1. To attract and empower the rural youth to take up various agriculture allied and service sector enterprises.
2. To demonstrate sustainable, attractive, remunerative and climate smart agri-based job opportunities for rural youth at village level and create gainful employment.
3. To upgrade youth-capacity in specific agri-preneurship model adoption.
4. To establish network groups to take up resource and capital intensive activities like processing, value addition and marketing.
5. To backstop technology dissemination chain and its up-scaling.
6. To demonstrate functional linkage with different institutions and stakeholders.
7. To curb rural migration.

Identified enterprises under ARYA

1) KVK Nimpith initiated three hub-based interventions i.e.

• Livestock based intervention- Vanaraja farming, Pekin duck farming, Meat processing unit
• Fishery based intervention – Carp hatchery, Asian Catfish hatchery
• Horticulture based intervention – Climate resilient shade net betel vine cultivation, Horticultural nursery

2) KVK Nayagarh established three enterprises under ARYA project-

• Mushroom production
• Stunted fingerlings production
• Backyard poultry farming

Budget Sanction for FY 2017-18

ICAR-ATARI Kolkata has been sanctioned an amount of Rs. 77.0 lakh for the financial year 2017-18

Brief overview of the year 2017-18

1) KVK Nimpith, South 24 Paraganas, West Bengal:

  a) Climate resilient shade net betel vine cultivation–

• No. of youths trained/skilled in the enterprise: 50
• No. of youths, running the entrepreneurial units in a sustainable manner:10
• Average annual income per farmer before ARYA project: Rs.71000
• Average annual income per farmer after ARYA project: Rs.147000
• Difference in average annual income per farmer: Rs.76000
• Skill imparted through this project:Betel vine cultivation in hi-tech shade net (“boroz”)
• No. of youths got employment round the year: 128

  b) Fishery Enterprises including Carp hatchery, Asian catfish hatchery-

• No. of youths trained/skilled in the enterprise: 92
• No. of youths, running the entrepreneurial units in a sustainable manner: 28
• Average annual income per farmer before ARYA project: Rs.67000
• Average annual income per farmer after ARYA project: Rs.131000
• Difference in average annual income per farmer: Rs.64000
• Skill imparted through this project:Induced breeding technique with fish hormones and larval rearing technique
• No. of youths got employment: 92 youths for 5 months

  c) Meat Processing Unit including Vanaraja poultry farming and Broiler duck (Pekin) farming-

• No. of youths trained/skilled in the enterprise: 157
• No. of youths, running the entrepreneurial units in a sustainable manner: 67
• Average annual income per farmer before ARYA project: Rs. 73500
• Average annual income per farmer after ARYA project: Rs. 136000
• Difference in average annual income per farmer: Rs. 62500
• Skill imparted through this project:Poultry farming, vaccination schedule and disease management and Technique of grading and processing
• No. of youths got employment round the year: 157

2) KVK Nayagarh, Odisha

  a) Mushroom production-

• No. of youths trained/skilled in the enterprise: 75
• No. of youths, running the entrepreneurial units in a sustainable manner: 50
• Average annual income per farmer before ARYA project: Rs.40000
• Average annual income per farmer after ARYA project:153600
• Difference in average annual income per farmer: Rs.113600
• Skill imparted through this project:Spawn production technique, Value Addition
• No. of youths got employment round the year: 100

  b) Stunted fingerling production-

• No. of youths trained/skilled in the enterprise: 50
• No. of youths, running the entrepreneurial units in a sustainable manner: 20
• Average annual income per farmer before ARYA project: Rs.34000
• Average annual income per farmer after ARYA project:135000
• Difference in average annual income per farmer: Rs.101000
• Skill imparted through this project:Induced breeding technique with fish hormones and larval rearing technique
• No. of youths got employment round the year: 40

  c) Backyard poultry-

• No. of youths trained/skilled in the enterprise: 75
• No. of youths, running the entrepreneurial units in a sustainable manner: 15
• Average annual income per farmer before ARYA project: Rs.72345
• Average annual income per farmer after ARYA project:92035
• Difference in average annual income per farmer: Rs.19690
• Skill imparted through this project:Poultry farming, vaccination schedule and disease management
• No. of youth got employment round the year: 15

Budget Sanction for FY 2018-19

 ICAR-ATARI Kolkata has been sanctioned an amount of Rs.95.23 lakh for the financial year 2018-19.

Brief overview of the year 2018-19

1) KVK Nimpith, South 24 Paraganas, West Bengal:

• No. of training programme during 2018-19: 7
• No. of youth trained in various enterprises: 230

  a) Climate resilient shade net betel vine cultivation–

• No. of youths identified in the enterprise: 5
• No. of unit developed:1
• Average annual income per farmer before ARYA project: Rs.52000
• Average annual income per farmer after ARYA project: Rs.138000
• Difference in average annual income per farmer: Rs.86000
• No. of other youths of the districts adopted this enterprise: 13

  b) Carp hatchery-

• No. of youths identified in the enterprise: 3
• No. of unit developed:1
• Average annual income per farmer before ARYA project: Rs.62000
• Average annual income per farmer after ARYA project: Rs.122000
• Difference in average annual income per farmer: Rs.60000
• Other youths of the districts are willing to adopt this technology by seeing the achievement and one youth already adopted this enterprise by his own.

  c) Asian catfish hatchery–

• No. of youths identified in the enterprise: 3
• No. of unit developed:1
• Average annual income per farmer before ARYA project: Rs.67000
• Average annual income per farmer after ARYA project: Rs.131000
• Difference in average annual income per farmer: Rs.64000
• No. of other youths of the districts adopted this enterprise: 2

  d) Horticulture nursery-

• No. of youths identified in the enterprise: 5
• No. of unit developed:2
• Average annual income per farmer before ARYA project: Rs.67000
• Average annual income per farmer after ARYA project: Rs.124000
• Difference in average annual income per farmer: Rs.57000
• No. of other youths of the districts adopted this enterprise: 5

2) KVK Nayagarh, Odisha:

• No. of training programme during 2018-19: 6
• No. of youth trained in various enterprises: 80

  a) Mushroom cultivation–

• No. of youths identified in the enterprise: 75
• No. of unit developed:30
• Average annual income per farmer before ARYA project: Rs.42000
• Average annual income per farmer after ARYA project: Rs.162000
• Difference in average annual income per farmer: Rs.120000
• No. of other youths of the districts adopted this enterprise: 25

  b) Stunted fingerling production-

• No. of youths identified in the enterprise: 75
• No. of unit developed:20
• Average annual income per farmer before ARYA project: Rs.35520
• Average annual income per farmer after ARYA project: Rs.135000
• Difference in average annual income per farmer: Rs.99480
• No. of other youths of the districts adopted this enterprise: 12

  c) Backyard poultry rearing–

• No. of youths identified in the enterprise: 50
• No. of unit developed:20
• Average annual income per farmer before ARYA project: Rs.72345
• Average annual income per farmer after ARYA project: Rs.92000-100000
• Difference in average annual income per farmer: Rs.19655-27655
• No. of other youths of the districts adopted this enterprise: 18

Newly sanctioned KVKs during 2018-19 and their identified enterprises:

Launching Workshop of ARYA on 28.03.19

A launching workshop of ARYA was organized on 28.03.19 at ICAR- Agricultural Technology Application Research Institute, Kolkata for the newly proposed seven KVKs (KVK Sambalpur, Ganjam-I, Puri, Cuttack, Uttar Dinajpur, Hooghly and Purulia) and two existing KVKs (KVK Nimpith&Nayagarh) of West Bengal and Odisha. The Launching Workshop was chaired by Dr. S.S. Singh, Director, ICAR-ATARI, Kolkata. The workshop was attended by Prof. P. Bandopadhyay, Director of Extension Education, BCKV, Nadia; Dr. M.P. Nayak, Joint Director, OUAT, Bhubaneswar; Dr. P. Adhiguru, Principal Scientist, ICAR, New Delhi; Dr. S.K. Roy, Dr. P.P. Pal, Dr. A. Haldar, Dr. S.K. Mondal, Dr. F.H. Rahman, Dr. K.S. Das, Principal Scientist, ICAR- ATARI, Kolkata, Senior Scientist & Heads and the concerned Subject Matter Specialists of the respective KVKs. In this workshop basic purpose of the project was discussed. The existing KVKs presented their achievement of ARYA project during 2015-16 to 2018-19 and the newly sanctioned KVKs presented their action plan and interacted with the dignitaries.

Budget Sanction for FY 2019-20

ICAR-ATARI Kolkata has been sanctioned an amount of Rs.164.25 lakh for the financial year 2019-20.

KVK wise budget sanctioned under ARYA:

(In rupees)

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