Soon, farmers to be trained to market, preserve their produce

Update: 2018-06-03 18:07 GMT
Kolkata: Concerned over a large number of farmer suicides across the country in the recent past, the Indian Institute of Social Welfare and Business Management (IISWBM) wants to churn out professionals who can reach out to the farmers and train them on modern agriculture so that they can market their produce and at the same time preserve them for a longer period. 
"We will be starting a course on rural management from the academic year 2019 through which we will equip people to reach out to the rural areas and educate the farmers. They need to know how to use resources like seed management, insurance and credit management. Modern-day agriculture has witnessed a sea change and simple use of family wealth and previous years' production as seeds are not enough. Farmers need to have knowledge of marketing their products and even learn about preservation. Lack of such knowledge has resulted in a number of farmer suicides in the recent past. We are trying to address this issue," said Rajagopal Dhar Chakraborty, director of IISWBM.
Such training programmes may be organised in the institute itself or experts may travel to the districts with support from the state government for the purpose of making the farmers aware of their requirements and how to insure themselves from risks associated with agricultural activities.
There are a number of NGOs both in the government and in the private level as well as a number of farmers' organisations who are working for the upliftment of the farmers. "We will be churning out experts who can be roped in by these bodies or organisations for serving their purpose. The day is not far when companies will have farmer support programmes. We want to be prepared for this," the director added.
IISWMB, the autonomous graduate business school in the city which is the first in the country to offer an MBA degree, also wants to commence a course on the skills of managing hospitals. "Doctors may be very good in the diagnosis of the disease of a patient but at the same time, they need to have knowledge of the resources available with the hospital. The state government is also taking a lot of steps for management of hospitals," he said.
The institute's second campus at Rajarhat will be ready by 2019 which will enable the institute to begin innovative courses.  

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