What is the National Agricultural Education Policy?

India's first National Agricultural Education Policy will bring academic credit banks and degree programs with multiple entry-exit alternatives to the 74 universities focussed on crop sciences, fisheries, veterinary and dairy preparing and research.

The multiple entry and exit will allow the students to earn a diploma or an advanced diploma with a choice to re-enter as and when they are able to resume their studies and earn a full college degree.

The process for formulating the National Agricultural Education Policy was started two months ago, after the release of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. The National Agricultural Education Policy is in tune with the NEP and will strengthen the agricultural education system in the country. 

Academic credit banks

The academic credit banks will facilitate the incorporation of the campuses and distributed learning systems, by creating student mobility within the inter and intra university system. It will also help in integrating skills and experiences into a credit-based formal system by providing a credit recognition system. 

Furthermore, the academic credits earned from recognised Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) will be digitally stored and will allow for credit redemption in order to be awarded a certificate, diploma or degree.

Student READY (Rural Entrepreneurship Awareness Development Yojana) programme

The scheme was launched to reorient graduates of agriculture and allied subjects for ensuring and assuring employability and developing entrepreneurs. It requires all students to undertake a six-month internship, usually in their fourth year, to gain hands-on training, rural awareness, industry experience, research expertise and entrepreneurship skills.

What is experiential education?

It is a teaching philosophy in which educators purposefully engage with learners in direct experience and focused reflection in order to increase knowledge, develop skills, clarify values, and develop people's capacity to contribute to their communities. 

The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 mentions it and it has already been mandated in agricultural education since 2016.

Key issues: 

1- Experiential learning to all the students if the multiple entry-exit systems get implemented.

2- The agricultural universities have been set up on the land grant pattern, with an exploration and augmentation, and profound community connections, driven by the philosophy that farmers need holistic solutions to their problems. However, in recent years, several domain-specific universities in horticulture, veterinary science and fisheries sciences have come up and incorporating humanities and social sciences into these settings could be challenging. 

3- Though agricultural education is a State subject, the ICAR is responsible for the quality of education across the nation, and hopes to continue in a standards-setting role under the new system of higher education regulation proposed by the NEP. However, it is not clear whether it will continue in its accreditation and grant-making roles under the new regime.

The Ministry of Education, Government of India, has intended to start staggering execution of these features of the NEP as early as the next scholarly year, beginning with the institutes of eminence and afterwards the central universities. 

Modern Agriculture and its impact on the environment