Mumbai : The Union government has approved the state government’s special project on Maharashtra Agri Skill Development Programme, which the state government has planned to start by the end of the month.
Officials from the state skill development department said the special project is part of the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) 2.0 that sought innovative projects to promote economically self-reliant entrepreneurs and beat unemployment through job creation in agriculture sector.
“We have received the Centre’s approval recently and we plan to start the programme from December 20,” said Sambhaji Patil, minister for skill development. “It involves giving advanced training to 2.82 lakh farmers in the state with advance technologies related to weather, soil testing and marketing. Farmers are not able to market their produce well, which is a major concern. Hence, we have also included marketing in the programme.”
The minister said the government was planning to give Rs 10 lakh loan to trained farmers from the Annasaheb Patil Arthik Magas Vikas Mahamandal. “The loan will be given to these farmers to utilize it for agriculture and allied business. Our attempt is not only to train them but to help them towards sustainable farming,” added Patil.
The minister further said the government has partnered with the Hebrew University of Israel for training the farmers. “The Centre is also considering to implement this project in other states,” Patil said, adding that the training programme would go on for a year.
Officials said that the 2.82 lakh farmers own less than one hectare land holding and so they have been included in the project. “The small and marginal farmers are the ones who are struggling with farm-related issues and they need to be given support. So, we surveyed all the district to find out how many such farmers are there in the state,” said the official.
The official added that the farmers trained under the mass skilling programme would be given group farming training, which they could implement in their respective villages. “These training sessions will be of 10-15 days. Besides, the individual skill training will be given to agriculture student that will lead to increase in employability of 44,289 in allied sectors of agriculture,” added the official.
Note: News shared for public awareness with reference from the information provided at online news portals.
