Agricultural talent must be used better |
India has made remarkable progress in expanding agricultural higher education, and has generated graduates to serve the country’s evolving agricultural sector. Nevertheless, despite the availability of qualified graduates, many agricultural companies continue to report difficulties in recruiting and retaining agricultural professionals. At first glance, this appears paradoxical. Why are employers not able to fill vacancies despite India generating a larger pool of trained graduates?
This could be answered by the increasing disjuncture between graduate expectations and employment realities. Agriculture remains central to the Indian economy, contributing around one-sixth of the country’s Gross Value Added while supporting nearly half of India’s workforce. At the same time, the sector is undergoing rapid transformation through digital agriculture, artificial intelligence, precision farming, climate-smart technologies, drones, remote sensing and data- driven decision-making.
These trends demand a technically proficient and motivated workforce that can convert scientific inventions into practical applications to help farmers. However, many entry-level opportunities in the private sector, including agri-inputs, seeds, fertilizers, crop protection, agritech, agricultural marketing and allied industries, are predominantly field-based. Many young agricultural graduates report that entry-level field positions in parts of the private agribusiness sector often offer salaries that they consider inadequate relative to the demands of the job and the rising cost of living.
In many cases, salaries for the agri graduates are in the range of Rs 18,000-20,000 per month, although compensation varies across companies, regions and........