Green Collar Job - Skill enhancement opportunities - Why blame only Rain, when something else is also taking away farm Grain

    India is all set towards growing the farm output and with good monsoon being forecasted, will lead the way. Good quality high yield seeds, right soil moisture levels, balanced soil nutrition and conditions, and adequate crop care, is all that majorly it takes for a healthy plant growth and bumper yield in the fields. As each one of us, in some or other way, is a consumer of the farm output we expect for the growth of the farm output. One who is at the final stage of implementation to meet the expectations is - the farmer and his farm team.  

    Most of us work as professionals in different sectors like manufacturing or service, performing the various rolls in blue collar job or white collar job and support the activities that are required to run the business or unit. We all understand that to run any of unit there are many departments performing various functions like, understand market requirement, select the right product, forecast demand, select suitable location, select appropriate machines & processes, have adequate level of input resources, deploy right talent and skilled labor, control processes to achieve required quality levels. It also involves arranging funds for initial and working capital and once the product is ready sell and generate revenues and profit to grow the business further.

    With the same lenses now let us look at the agriculture sector, the farmer is the one who needs to perform similar activities in some or the other form, most of the time all alone. He has to look for the right crop to grow for the season, needs to forecast the demand and supply equilibrium. He is the one who has no choice on the location as his farm land is fixed, for raw material in the form of seeds and fertilizers he has to rely on the local sellers. Also needs to deploy farm machinery and employ people with required or most of the time available skill to operate the farm machinery or perform manual work in the field. Farmer is the one who needs to keep on forecasting for the rains and adjust the plan of sowing accordingly as it is a major factor to his success. Also has to keep an eye on his fund requirements, needs to keep the control on the crop growth and ensure to protect crop from pest attack or nutrition or water deficiencies. When the crop is ready in the field has to wait for labor or machine to harvest. (Isn't it like sleeping with all your earnings put under the sky, the risk he holds is so high that one natural calamities can take away all his efforts in just a day.) He has to harvest and get the crop out of his farm and wait with till it's sold to get his earnings. Isn't' it a complex situation and role to perform, too many things to take care of and that too mostly all alone.

    Now as we look at the various aspects that governs his output, we see that mainly we always talk about rains, as water is one of the key factor of farming, however there are other major factors that impact the output like the traditional knowledge, agronomy practices, machine operation skills and timely information of surrounding aspects. There are challenges in getting the farm work done manually due to availability of manpower; the answer to this challenge is towards farm mechanization. As the machines find their way into the farms, it is important that operators are aware of the various settings required and available on the machines & attachments and also agronomic aspect or requirement of the crop. There are new technologies and practices getting introduced and requires higher skill levels. The traditional knowledge when blended with new skill around technology & farm machinery is a recipe to help enhance farm output. Out of the various factors mentioned above, major farm efficiency losses can be assigned to limited skill level available during the field preparation, planting, crop care, harvesting or post harvest field activities. So Why blame only Rain... when something else is also taking away farm Grain - and this brings us to the available Opportunity space for the concept of Green Collar Job the terminology coined for the far jobs.

    The operating requirements of the off-highway farm machines are different from the automobile driving and needs special focus and skill.  For instance, when there is the land preparation operation being performed , it is important to have the right depth of the implement to be achieved with right speed of operation. Similarly and more importantly while planting the seeds it is required to place it at the right spacing and depth in the soil with required moisture level, suitably cover and compact with soil after placing the seed. While at the harvesting of the crop it is important to select the right crop maturity window of harvest, have the right setting of the equipment so as to limit the damage or loss of crop. Today we have these operation being done by operators, most of them have no formal training and awareness of these aspects which have the major impact on output of the farm.

As in cases where the person who was riding the bullock cart in the village one fine day lands himself behind the steering wheel of a tractor and with limited or no formal training is set to do no good to the farm. You ask him 'Kaha sekha Bhai tractor chalana' and quick comes the answer 'bas aaise hi seekh liya khud se hi dekh dekh kar'. And now for instance this unskilled or semiskilled operator is not able to maintain the sowing depth, spacing and seed population will thus result is loss of productivity. There is visible difference one can see in the fields worked upon by skilled operator and those worked upon by unskilled ones.

    Let us now move and look at the skill enhancement schools availability, for the automobiles we can see multiple driving schools in couple of kilometer radius, however for the off-highway special skill farm machinery, there is hardly any skill development school one can find, thus providing the white space where lies the opportunity to bring focus. With many controls getting added on the machines and the driver assistance systems being provided to make his job easier, sometimes is adding to his stress levels due to unawareness. There are some initiatives already being taken up around special skill enhancement however we may have more opportunities considering the headroom available on farm productivity and also aspirations on growth in this sector that everyone has.

To bring in more focus on skill enhancement, here is what can be considered by individuals and organizations to put up at local or country wide initiative. Let us, for discussion purpose consider it as scalable initiative and call it as, Agriculture & Machinery Skill Enhancement Centers (AMSEC), this center to be on the driving seat for skill enhancement and creation of Green Collar Jobs. This initiative can help lay the array of such skill enhancement centres across the length and breadth of the country. We should aspire for having couple of such centres in each tehsil. These centers can operate with the three steps approach, proportionately blended based on the requirements,

• Step 1 - Class room training
• Step 2 - Industry exposure
• Step 3 - In farm hands on operation

Step 1 - Class room training can be provide through the audio visuals giving the  high level information of the agronomy requirement, the machine operations & maintenance. Soil testing, neutrint management, crop diesies prevention etc can be covered. The traditional knowledge sharing sessions should be a part of this, where the senior citizens can be engaged to share the traditional knowledge and pro and cons of those same package of practises on crop rotation or other agronomy practises. This can be supported by the agriculture students and researchers with the newer package of practises and the agronomist requirements. Industry & institution experts from seeds, neutrient & water management and farm mechanisation can be roped in to share their views. Sessions around renewable energy like solar and wind power can be introduced to bring awareness. Also awareness on biomass handling and fruitful utilazation ways through compost making, energy source, or mulching back in the soil to make improve soil nutrition can be shared. The various settings, machine parameter monitoring and trouble shooting to be included in this session. This opens up opportunity for the gaming or e-learning industry. Providing the actual feel of the field conditions and the machine operator stations various simulators can be introduced in the classroom training, providing another opportunity for the software and hardware industry. Farm machines is not in use during the off-season and this time frame it can be utilized for the purpose of educating and training, this in turn will help keeping them operational. It will provide opportunities for the renewable energy companies to reach to every village through these training centres.

    The other aspect that can be covered in this part is soft skills. Current and future time will see multiple machines working in close coordination and this will need the operators to work with collaboration and have respect for others in the field. Proactive listening, critical timely thinking, resource management, negotiation, social perspectives, participative speaking, etc can be thought which are critical for the operation of these special farm machines in close coordination. This will Provide employment opportunity for the soft skill trainers.

    One more aspect around the basic mathematics and cost accounting, the farm economics can be understood by the participants in this session. Today there is no proper accounting being done by the farmers, most of the time it's either in their minds or on a piece of paper in small dairy. The finance and analytical skill can be enhanced in this session and this will provide understanding on profitability of the farm. This part can also cover on educating them around support income opportunities like dairy, poultry and cattle breeding, that will help them generate regular small incomes and also can support them to survive in situations of crop failures for reasons beyond anyone's control. It gives opportunity for the commerce graduates to teach in this area. Also some of the retired professionals can be engaged in this area or also students during their college vacations can teach this. Mobile apps can be provided to support them in maintaining their accounts and help them understand the farm economics better.

Step 2 The industry exposure can provide the opportunity to touch and feel the machine, build the machine, repair the machine, understand the various aggregates of the machine and functioning and settings of the machines. This will help improve fuel efficiency during operation and safety of operator, machine and surrounding. This will on other hand provide the industry an understanding of the perspective of the potential future user of the machine and can help build the machines more user friendly and improve on the ease of operation. Some can work in other sectors like post harvest processing that will help them understand the quality requirement of the crops. Some may be given opportunities to work in the renewable energy sector to help them understand it and how they can leverage for their farms. The industry exposure will indirectly help them be more aware of controlling waste and importance of planning and bringing execution focus.

Step 3 The In Farm hands on exposure will provide the real time opportunity to apply the previous steps learnings, understanding the crop, soil and machine & equipment interaction. This part of training can cover various attachment and implement usage understanding and parameter settings. Periodic inspection  and parameter control to ensure the right quality of work is performed can be part of this session. This part should also focus on water management techniques and understanding the importance of land levelling and other aspects that impact the water requirements. Session can also provide some learnings around renewable energy like solar and wind energy to support the power requirements for the farm and drive towards self sufficiency of power. It can also provide the training around biomass handling, compost making and usage of biomass for soil health improvement or energy generation and in turn it will avoid the burning and thus controlling the pollution.

     This will also need a special focus from the authorities that will provide the license to operate these machines, may be a separate focused wing can be made to bring the required focus around this and to provide the license on getting the certificates from such Agriculture & Machinery Skill enhancement centers, so as to bring in the required awareness and adherence in this area. This requirement will help people turn up to the centers to learn. It will apart from enhancing the farm output will add to the safety.

    To summarize on this Agriculture & Machinery Skill Enhancement Centers (AMSEC)

Challenges and Opportunity Space

• Agriculture output productivity is low leaving high headroom for improvements
• Farm Mechanization and precision agriculture is going to be reality soon.
• Operator skill levels plays one of the most critical part in farm output, and skills are lower and also very limited training and skill enhancement schools available.

Potential way out from these challenges and advantages of skill enhancement centers

• Losses in sowing, crop care and harvesting can be minimized with right level of knowledge and skill.
• AMSEC like initiative can provide opportunity for entrepreneurships at rural level to setup such centers
• Rural youth will get support for employment through acquiring the trainings and also to the skilled individuals to be part as trainers
• It will provide opportunity to age old individuals for sharing the traditional knowledge and practices

Doors that will open for various manufacturing and service sectors

• This will provide a new set of opportunities for the software industry to build the simulators software and may be some to build the hardware for it
• Will provide opportunity for media and mass communication sector to develop audio-visual training material
• It can open up a entire new arena for the gaming industry to create situations and games around farming
• Will provide the opportunity for soft skill & commerce trainers
• It will help create platform to bring awareness around new technologies

    As there are many more advantages we can think of, for sure there would be some limitations that need to be thought off and resolved.

    To conclude on this article, let me admit that am not an expert in the subject area, however my passion for agriculture, concern around skill gaps, learnings through various interactions with people from this sector, some reading of previous literature in this area and feeling to share and bounce the views have driven me to put up these raw thoughts which are completely my personal views and request readers to receive these in that context , also forgive for any typo errors in the article. One may like to add, discount, deduct or build upon this further.

    Let's feed in improved & appropriate technology, spread knowledge and enhance the skills in farming, so that they can grow, keep feeding the world and most importantly personally prosper and live a better life.

    May be next time would like to share view around managing input cost and post harvest processing - "Farming to be treated as factories in the farm"

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