I have submitted the file with a synopsis of the model that was mentioned in my earlier post.
In my view, the youth in India are either formally educated in a system that aims at university degrees which trains you for office or corporate jobs. The ones who do not take formal college education especially after class 10th i.e. at 15 years of age, usually drop out of the education system completely. They usually take up some sort of vocational training from ITIs. However only few of them find employment in their respective fields and migrate to cities.
In a separate study done on employability of shrimp farming industry in India, we have some interesting findings. The labour employed in this industry all over the country, comes from only a particular region of India. The skills necessary for shrimp farming are passed down from generation to generation in this region. As there is a lack of skilled labour in other parts, the youth from this particular regio are employed. The ones who stay back in villages, and opt for agriculture or allied, usually learn from their experience in field. They are unable to update themselves with new technologies.
Thus we fins a dire need for vocational training in aquaculture. Aquaculture being a relatively new practcie in India when compared to agriculture. Unlike the farming techniques which have been passed down form one generation to another, one needs to learn the husbandary methods for aquaculture. I feel a strong need of vocational training facilities (for 15 to 17 age group) on district level so that the vast resources of tanks and reservoirs are exploited for income gerneration which will also take care of the malnutrition (especially lack of protein) in rural India. The aquaculture does not stop at the production level as there is a scope for preservation and value addition too. Thus there can be a cascading effect leading to more employment generation opportunities.
Agrarian crisis is deepening in India. The grain output is not increasing and the employment rate in agriculture sector has not grown as much as the employment rate overall.
The last 10 years have recorded never before rates of urban migration.
Of the 60 million new employment opportunities, 52 million have been in the unorganized sector.
It is also true that livelihoods in the rural sector are evolving and hold a lot of promise, if gaps are identified properly.
Our aim is to work towards delivering innovative solutions to provide sustainable livelihood for the rural youth through aquaculture.
This project was undertaken in a small village pond in Palghar district of Maharashtra, India.
The Project
Utilization of village pond for aquaculture for livelihood generation and food security
The Problem
In this region they have small village ponds (around 3 to 4 acres) which are seasonal in nature. It was difficult to utilize these ponds for fish culture of the most popular species as they require perennial water bodies.
We selected a team of fresh fisheries graduates to study the site and come up with a solution as a part of their internship.
The Solution
They proposed the following solution after studying the various technical parameters
Raise fingerlings of GIFT tilapia in the cages installed in the same pond
Then stock the pond with the fingerlings
One of the fresh fisheries graduates who could commute to this particular location was chosen and given the task of monitoring the entire crop cycle in partnership with the youth in the villages.
Task of the fresh graduate: To check the water parameters, decide the feed dosage, checking the samples for sign of diseases
The task of the village workers (3-4) was to take care of feeding, security helping with water analysis and harvesting.
Role of the NGO during the project
Our NGO co-ordinated the efforts and also sourced the good quality seed and low cost feed for them
The Outcome: In 6 months 3 .5 tons of Tilapia were harvested from the pond which has not yielded even 500 Kgs till date. The farmed fish were harvested and sold at the site to the villagers and local market. Thus a good quality fresh fish was available to the villagers at a reasonable cost as all the marketing intermediaries were cut off.
The youth from nearby villages visited the site and showed interest in taking up this fish culture in their village ponds.
The Challenges
Insufficient data on physical properties of the waterbody
Difficulty in convincing the youth of the new species and scientific ways of fish farming
Getting the fisheries graduate who could commute to the site.
Rural India is in dire need of innovation in the livelihood sector. Our present intern has done a commendable job in this regard. You can add on further through setting up market linkages, community mobilisation for adoption of better farming practices, introduction of appropriate technologies, better management of groups and organisations and other aspects based on the situation and as the skill set supports.
India has one of the youngest populations with about 600 million younger than 25 and more than 60% residing in the villages. With this India is facing the biggest challenge of employment generation as the economy will generate jobs for only half of this population as estimated by the UNDP.
As urban India strives to emerge as the next superpower, rural India continues on a never-ending journey of poverty, exploitation and in some cases extinction. The ground realities add unpleasant hues to an otherwise shining picture of India’s progress. To make India’s growth story a truly inclusive one, it becomes imperative to help 833 million people residing in rural India, overcome their developmental challenges.
Rural India continues to suffer in the absence of access to adequate productive assets, connectivity, intellectual and financial resources. More than 85% of rural families own less than 2 hectares of land, which are sub-divided and scattered in several locations. These small holdings coupled with inability to invest in necessary agricultural inputs and adoption of advanced technologies means lower productivity leading to poverty which serves as the basis for various social problems.
We are working in the aquaculture sector as the employment generating activity. This sector has witnessed a threefold increase in the last decade with just 15% utilization or resources. There is ample scope to generate employment through this sector as there is a dearth of manpower in this sector. Aquaculture is the only hope left to fulfil the protein requirement of the world’s population. This sector is generating 32 lakh fisheries job opportunities in India and less fisheries graduates and hence industry is facing shortage of manpower.
The main reasons are:
- This form of culture is comparatively new as against the age old practice of aquaculture, poultry etc.
- Poor understanding leads to poor planning and implementation. The government administration itself is less equipped with the technology. Inadequate training programs.
-Lack of vocational training in aquaculture to generate the manpower necessary for the sector.
- The only education in aquaculture is available at the Fisheries Universities which are few for the vast rural population.
- Inability of the Government to popularise this sector.
- Due to lack of knowledge the banks perceive this as a high risk sector thus denying the entrepreneurs financial aid.
- The common resources utilization makes it impossible for the qualified fisheries graduates to take it up as the business enterprise thus denying them with the hands on field experience.
The model that we had tried is meeting the trained fisheries graduates to take up fish or prawns culture with the partnership of the village youth. This helped them university graduates gain field experience and demonstrated the fish culture practices for the entire crop cycle. This is a scalable model as this way we are generating employment for both the fresh university graduates with scientific knowledge and rural youth.
Dr. Vaishali Joshi
Dear Jacqueline
I have submitted the file with a synopsis of the model that was mentioned in my earlier post.
In my view, the youth in India are either formally educated in a system that aims at university degrees which trains you for office or corporate jobs. The ones who do not take formal college education especially after class 10th i.e. at 15 years of age, usually drop out of the education system completely. They usually take up some sort of vocational training from ITIs. However only few of them find employment in their respective fields and migrate to cities.
In a separate study done on employability of shrimp farming industry in India, we have some interesting findings. The labour employed in this industry all over the country, comes from only a particular region of India. The skills necessary for shrimp farming are passed down from generation to generation in this region. As there is a lack of skilled labour in other parts, the youth from this particular regio are employed. The ones who stay back in villages, and opt for agriculture or allied, usually learn from their experience in field. They are unable to update themselves with new technologies.
Thus we fins a dire need for vocational training in aquaculture. Aquaculture being a relatively new practcie in India when compared to agriculture. Unlike the farming techniques which have been passed down form one generation to another, one needs to learn the husbandary methods for aquaculture. I feel a strong need of vocational training facilities (for 15 to 17 age group) on district level so that the vast resources of tanks and reservoirs are exploited for income gerneration which will also take care of the malnutrition (especially lack of protein) in rural India. The aquaculture does not stop at the production level as there is a scope for preservation and value addition too. Thus there can be a cascading effect leading to more employment generation opportunities.
Dr. Vaishali Joshi
Rural Livelihood generation through Aquaculture
Situation
It is also true that livelihoods in the rural sector are evolving and hold a lot of promise, if gaps are identified properly.
Our aim is to work towards delivering innovative solutions to provide sustainable livelihood for the rural youth through aquaculture.
This project was undertaken in a small village pond in Palghar district of Maharashtra, India.
The Project
Utilization of village pond for aquaculture for livelihood generation and food security
The Problem
In this region they have small village ponds (around 3 to 4 acres) which are seasonal in nature. It was difficult to utilize these ponds for fish culture of the most popular species as they require perennial water bodies.
We selected a team of fresh fisheries graduates to study the site and come up with a solution as a part of their internship.
The Solution
They proposed the following solution after studying the various technical parameters
Raise fingerlings of GIFT tilapia in the cages installed in the same pond
Then stock the pond with the fingerlings
One of the fresh fisheries graduates who could commute to this particular location was chosen and given the task of monitoring the entire crop cycle in partnership with the youth in the villages.
Task of the fresh graduate: To check the water parameters, decide the feed dosage, checking the samples for sign of diseases
The task of the village workers (3-4) was to take care of feeding, security helping with water analysis and harvesting.
Role of the NGO during the project
Our NGO co-ordinated the efforts and also sourced the good quality seed and low cost feed for them
The Outcome: In 6 months 3 .5 tons of Tilapia were harvested from the pond which has not yielded even 500 Kgs till date. The farmed fish were harvested and sold at the site to the villagers and local market. Thus a good quality fresh fish was available to the villagers at a reasonable cost as all the marketing intermediaries were cut off.
The youth from nearby villages visited the site and showed interest in taking up this fish culture in their village ponds.
The Challenges
Rural India is in dire need of innovation in the livelihood sector. Our present intern has done a commendable job in this regard. You can add on further through setting up market linkages, community mobilisation for adoption of better farming practices, introduction of appropriate technologies, better management of groups and organisations and other aspects based on the situation and as the skill set supports.
Dr. Vaishali Joshi
India has one of the youngest populations with about 600 million younger than 25 and more than 60% residing in the villages. With this India is facing the biggest challenge of employment generation as the economy will generate jobs for only half of this population as estimated by the UNDP.
As urban India strives to emerge as the next superpower, rural India continues on a never-ending journey of poverty, exploitation and in some cases extinction. The ground realities add unpleasant hues to an otherwise shining picture of India’s progress. To make India’s growth story a truly inclusive one, it becomes imperative to help 833 million people residing in rural India, overcome their developmental challenges.
Rural India continues to suffer in the absence of access to adequate productive assets, connectivity, intellectual and financial resources. More than 85% of rural families own less than 2 hectares of land, which are sub-divided and scattered in several locations. These small holdings coupled with inability to invest in necessary agricultural inputs and adoption of advanced technologies means lower productivity leading to poverty which serves as the basis for various social problems.
We are working in the aquaculture sector as the employment generating activity. This sector has witnessed a threefold increase in the last decade with just 15% utilization or resources. There is ample scope to generate employment through this sector as there is a dearth of manpower in this sector. Aquaculture is the only hope left to fulfil the protein requirement of the world’s population. This sector is generating 32 lakh fisheries job opportunities in India and less fisheries graduates and hence industry is facing shortage of manpower.
The main reasons are:
- This form of culture is comparatively new as against the age old practice of aquaculture, poultry etc.
- Poor understanding leads to poor planning and implementation. The government administration itself is less equipped with the technology. Inadequate training programs.
-Lack of vocational training in aquaculture to generate the manpower necessary for the sector.
- The only education in aquaculture is available at the Fisheries Universities which are few for the vast rural population.
- Inability of the Government to popularise this sector.
- Due to lack of knowledge the banks perceive this as a high risk sector thus denying the entrepreneurs financial aid.
- The common resources utilization makes it impossible for the qualified fisheries graduates to take it up as the business enterprise thus denying them with the hands on field experience.
The model that we had tried is meeting the trained fisheries graduates to take up fish or prawns culture with the partnership of the village youth. This helped them university graduates gain field experience and demonstrated the fish culture practices for the entire crop cycle. This is a scalable model as this way we are generating employment for both the fresh university graduates with scientific knowledge and rural youth.