Agro-tourism planned for college students
The Hindu
Students will visit agricultural varsities for 3 days in batches
In a unique exercise, college students will get an opportunity to visit agricultural colleges. The Association of Indian Universities recently signed an agreement to this effect with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research.
Under the agreement, the students will visit 10 agricultural universities in the country, in batches of 25 each. The batches will tour the agricultural universities for three days. At the end of each day, a student representative will share their experience and perspectives. The project duration is for a year.
At the end of the exercise, a book and a film on agri-tourism will be made. “The aim is to familiarise students with agriculture. Most students in the cities do not know what agriculture entails. We have to educate the students about the difficulties the farmers face. We have to orient them. For this purpose, we have developed a scheme for non-agricultural students to visit agricultural universities,” said Secretary-General of AIU G. Thiruvasagam, one of the signatories to the agreement.
In 2021, five women from Mayithara, four of them MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) workers, found a common ground in their desire to create a sustainable livelihood by growing vegetables. Rajamma M., Mary Varkey, Valsala L., Elisho S., and Praseeda Sumesh, aged between 70 and 39, pooled their savings, rented a piece of land and began their collective vegetable farming journey under the Deepam Krishi group.