BANGALORE: Discussions on improving the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in the upcoming 12th Five Year Plan are going on between the Planning Commission and the Rural Development Ministry, said Professor Abhijit Sen, Member, Planning Commission.Inaugurating a national seminar on “Attracting farm youth to sustainable agriculture” at University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS) GKVK, here on Friday, Sen said, “On a secondary basis, we have kept provision for training of labourers to be included in the MGNREGA, following which they perform the jobs of contractors.” He said that retaining rural youths in agriculture is, whose decline has been sharp over the last decade, according t o census statistics, important.He decried the steep decline in investment in the agriculture sector over the past five years.“More rural youths are now getting educated and obtaining jobs.How many of them will return to agriculture and in what capacity is a matter of concern,” he opined.Dr R Dwarakinath, former V-C, UAS, while stating that though agriculture is not lucrative, asserted that it cannot be neglected.“With a majority of agriculture suffering from the vagaries of monsoon, if 70 per cent of dry farming ceases to produce, then survival would become difficult as 65-70 per cent of the nation’s population are directly dependent on agriculture.” He said that though, over the decades, agricultural strategies has remained the same in India, family farming faces the threat of extinction.“Bringing about reforms in farming and making agriculture attractive should be given serious thought.” Making use of farm equipment, value added processing system, providing better marketing strategy, addressing the research problem and providing encouragement to farmers would be few such strategies to retain rural farm youths in agriculture, asserted Dr K Narayana Gowda, Vice- Chancellor, UAS, GKVK.Around 300 delegates from across the country attended the seminar which will continue till August 28.
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