Hi Fresh Hydroponics' Dino Mussolino talks to Aga Khan Rural Support Program's Siddhartha Dabhi, Ironwood Institute's Dr Kalyan Dhanagopalan, Dr Ramoo, Ironwood Institute's Navtej Bal, Indian Council of Agricultural Research Deputy Director General of Extension Dr Udham Singh Gautam and Ironwood Institute's Dr Hank Duyverman during a recent visit to Adelaide.
The University of Adelaide has led an international consortium of vocational education and training (VET) providers in establishing five new agricultural vocational training courses in India.
The 16-month project, funded by the Federal Government and led by Dr Tamara Jackson, of the University's School of Agriculture Food and Wine, focused on developing skills in areas such as digital agriculture, carbon farming and organic farming.
International training partners also visited sites in Adelaide in July.
"A comprehensive scoping study identified skill sets that were capable of contributing to the future prosperity and competitive nature of the Indian agricultural sector, based on the ability to further enhance the productivity, profitability and sustainability of agricultural systems," said Dr Jackson, who worked alongside colleagues from Australian and Indian VET institutions.
"This project has delivered a demand-driven set of future skills in Indian agriculture that are aligned with existing programs and embedded in effective institutions, enhancing connections between Australian and Indian actors in the agriculture VET system, as well as building a cohort of training providers who can deliver quality training to a wider stakeholder network."
The project is funding five key skills areas: Digital Agriculture Extension Promoter, Carbon Farming Practitioner, Livestock Green Management Promoter, Integrated Farming Practitioner and Organic Farming and Business Promoter.
Dr Jackson said the project's accomplishments, including pilot courses in the key areas, would lend themselves to growth in other industries.
"The initial success in mapping processes relevant to the agriculture sector has a huge potential to replicate the model to other industry sectors," she said.
"As it is process and partnership-based, it can be applied in other sectors of skill development that are shared priorities for both the Indian and Australian governments."
"The project's success is demonstrated by the fact that connections were strengthened between farmers and government representatives. It has also had a significant impact on identifying future collaborative opportunities between India and Australia through a range of initiatives which can be explored on a country-by-country basis."Dr Tamara Jackson, University of South Australia
Such opportunities include dual certification, scaling of course implementation, business opportunities, and research connections. These were discussed at a roundtable meeting between the Australian Government Department of Education, the Indian Ministry of Skills Development and Entrepreneurship, and project team members in New Delhi.
"This project also highlighted how micro-credentials can offer flexible training options that benefit industries, particularly in the realm of online course delivery," said Dr Jackson.
The Aga Khan Rural Support Program in India hosted the carbon farming practitioner course - just one of the pilot programs created during project - which was developed in part by Siddhartha Dabhi.
Carbon farming is the management of land or agriculture to maximise the amount of carbon stored through measures such as planting native vegetation and minimising the emission of greenhouse gases (mainly carbon dioxide and methane).
Mr Dabhi said the project was a wonderful opportunity to create a course which would be rolled out nationally.
"The carbon farming practitioner course has been successful due to its flexibility: there is no other course that talks about carbon markets in simple terms like this course does," said Mr Dabhi.
"To make carbon farming viable in India you need a larger group of people, around 20,000, to sign up and work together and now we have this course which highlights the value of carbon farming."
Alongside the University of Adelaide, the consortium also consisted of Skills Insight, Ironwood College, the Australian College of Agriculture and Horticulture, Aventia Institute and Caron Friendly from Australia; and the Agricultural Skills Council of India, National Skills Foundation of India, Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Mahindra and Mahindra, Centre for Sustainable Agriculture, and the Aga Khan Rural Support Program in India.
