Agriculture Education Must Go Beyond Classrooms: Shivraj Chouhan

Union Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has called for major changes in agricultural education, stressing that farming cannot be fully understood within classrooms and must be learned directly from farms and farmers.

Addressing a conference of Vice Chancellors and Directors of ICAR institutes in New Delhi, Chouhan said agricultural education should be made more practical and closely connected with field-level experiences.
He also emphasised the need to integrate Artificial Intelligence (AI) into agricultural education to keep students and institutions aligned with emerging technologies and changing requirements in the sector.

The Minister urged agricultural universities to update their teaching methods and adopt AI-based tools as part of their pedagogy. He also encouraged Vice Chancellors to develop informal and stronger relationships with students, saying this would help bring out their potential and improve the quality of agricultural education.