National Academy of Agricultural Sciences

Brainstorming Session
on
Reimagining Indian Higher Agricultural Education System towards Viksit Bharat

October 16, 2026

The Academy organized a Brainstorming Session on “Reimagining Indian Higher Agricultural Education System towards Viksit Bharat” on October 16, 2026, under the chairmanship of Dr. M.L. Jat, President, NAAS, and Co-chairpersonship of Mrs.  Sripriya Ranganathan, Secretary (CPV & OIA), Ministry of External Affairs, GoI. Dr. Anupama Singh, Joint Director (Edn.) & Dean, ICAR-IARI and Dr. K.M. Maredia, Professor and Director, World Agriculture Center, Michigan State University, served as the Convenors, while Dr. Anil Dahuja, IQAC Coordinator, ICAR-IARI served as the Co-Convener.

During context setting, the convenors highlighted the urgent need to build locally-relevant and globally-competent human capital to fully capitalize on the existing demographic dividend before it peaks in 2036 and starts declining. Dr. Anupama Singh stressed upon the need of on-priority reforms in higher agricultural education frameworks to contribute towards making agriculture more productive, value-added and knowledge-intensive as its share in GDP is projected to fall from current ~20% to 12% in 2047. In his opening remarks, Dr. M.L. Jat emphasized the importance of sculpting skilled workforce to cater to the needs and demands of the entire Agri Food System value chain to secure strategic competitive edge for ensuring regional and global leadership. He underscored the critical role of future human capital need assessment in agriculture, skill gap analysis, targeted & structured capacity building, and transformative mentoring. Mrs.  Sripriya Ranganathan said that in this increasingly interconnected world, a wide Indian diaspora is an asset whose soft power should be harnessed in agricultural education sector through various strategic partnerships and linkages. She called for demand-driven export of human capital to other Agri-talent-deficit countries. The deliberations brought out recommendations towards interdisciplinary research & skilling, internationalization, cross-sectoral collaborations, bridging of Research-Innovation-Entrepreneurship-Start-ups, experiential learning, branding and perception, digital technologies and dynamic curricula & pedagogy for making impact in real term. There was particular emphasis on multidimensional role of alumni in strengthening the NHAES. The industry experts emphasized upon the value of co-creation through End-to-End Industry-Academia linkages. A strong recommendation emerged on inter-institutional functional relationships rather than the static MoUs. The BSS concluded with recommendations to undertake scenario exercise of the NHAES, prepare a global positioning statement and action plan for Higher Agricultural Education System to realize the goals of Viksit Bharat.