Essential oil production for involving rural youth for enterpreneurship and livelihoods in India
More than 60 % of population lives in rural areas in India and nearly 600 million people are youth under the age of 25 in India. Gainful employment and livelihood options combined with skills and enterpreneuship development will help improve the living standards in rural areas. Also, the increasing migration of rural youth to urban areas for employment which are already overpopulated exacerbate the problems of rural economy and gender equity.
We have started working on the models of incoporating commercially important aromatic plants for essential oil production as diversification crops in rural India (Prakasa Rao, 2009). Recently we have produced a proof of concept of vetiver oil production in south India where technological interventions with sustainable agricultural pracices as a viable rural employment opportunity for small farmers (Prakasa Rao et al., 2015). It has to be noted that in the small farmer families, children are often involved in the agricultural operations. It is at this stage of life (below 18 years of age) that new opportunities for skills and enterpreneurship opportunities are made available to the youth of this age and also young girls could be made a part of such efforts (figures attached).
Thus our consultations focussing such issues as presented in my note could help evolve diversified strategies to involve rural youth of both genders for gainful employment and improved livelihoods in rural India.
Ref.
E.V.S.Prakasa Rao. 2009. Medicinal and aromatic plants for crop diversification and their agronomic implications. Indian J. Agron. 54(2), 215-220.
E.V.S.Prakasa Rao, Gopinath, C.T., Ravindra, N.S., Akshata Srinivas., Nagendra Prasad and Aparna Hebbar (2015). Vetiver production for small farmers in India. In Sustainable Agriculture Reviews.Ed. E. Lichtfouse, Springer International Publishing Switzerland. Vol. 17: 337-355.DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-16742-8_10
الدكتور E.V.S. Prakasa Rao