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- NIRDPR & SFI brings Agri-Entrepreneur Programme to tackle rural youth unemployment
The National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj (NIRDPR) and Syngenta Foundation India (SFI) have begun an Agri-Entrepreneurship (AE) model. This programme is started to tackle unemployment among rural youth and to focus on improving the plight of farmers in rural India.
Presently, an AE model is active across seven states and, as of October 2018, more than 580 AEs are associated with SFI serving over 75,000 farmers. It will be expanded to different parts of the country.
The Agri-Entrepreneur (AE) Enterprise platform is aiming to optimize all processes, from the selection of an AE leading up to their day-to-day business activities and farmer interactions. This programme will lead to faster scaling up, adding greater transparency and facilitating the creation of networks for seamless knowledge transfer.
Dr. WR Reddy IAS, Director General, NIRDPR said, "Farmers across the country at present need commodity-centric experts in the form of service providers who could bring in knowledge related to crop science, input services, value addition and market linkages as a one-stop solution to the farmer."
"The AEs we are promoting with the support of SFI will be spread across the country in a scalable proposition in the next five years, providing market-ready services to the farmers while being able to generate revenue for themselves," he added.