CHENNAI, MAR 3: 
The country would witness a shift from primary to secondary agriculture in the 12th Five Year Plan beginning this April, which would provide value addition to the sectoral products, Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) said on Saturday .
“The secondary agriculture would be providing value addition to agricultural products, creating facilities for primary processing and stress management in agriculture. The 12th Plan (2012-2017) will see the shift from primary to secondary agriculture,” ICAR Director General Mr S Ayyappan told reporters here on the sidelines of a function.
“The value addition could be by grading the different quality of products, cold storage facilities to take up primary processing and taking steps to control soil and water degradation,” he added.
Concerned over the shortage of manpower in the agriculture sector, ICAR is planning for a national agriculture education project, he said.
“One thing we see is the manpower shortage. So, we have to improve the course curriculum, faculty competence, infrastructure development such as hostels, hands-on and skill development and student exchange programmes,” Mr Ayyappan said.
Mr Ayyappan said ICAR was thinking over the concepts of ’Farmer First’ and ‘Student Ready’ to bridge the gap between the educational institutions and the industry needs.
Aspiring to produce quality agricultural graduates who can become “agri-preneurs” in the next Five Year Plan, he said, the government is spending nearly Rs 8-10 lakh for a bachelor degree student, Rs 12-15 lakh for a post-graduate student and Rs 20 lakh for research students.
The 12th Plan would also focus on rain-fed agriculture for capacity building, he added.