PIONEERING NEW APPROACHES TO RURAL AGRI-ENTREPRENEURSHIP SKILLS DEVELOPMENT IN JHARKHAND, INDIA

Jharkhand has a large proportion of marginal and small landholders (84 percent), who mainly practice rain-fed, single-crop subsistence farming, cultivating a low-yielding variety of paddy. A vast majority of these rural producers are unable to transition to high-value commodities. The average landholding per farmer is 1.17 hectares. Of the 3.43 million hectares of cultivable land, only 2.23 million hectares (65 percent) is being farmed leaving nearly 35 percent of cultivable land fallow. Small livestock rearing and fish farming in catchment farm ponds, tanks and reservoirs could be important potential sources of livelihood for these rural households. Collection and sale of non-timber forest produce (NTFP) contributes substantially to incomes of forest dwellers and inhabitants of hamlets surrounding forest areas, who are mostly disadvantaged and landless communities belonging to particularly vulnerable tribal groups. This note explains the skilling and rural agri-entrepreneurship approach, process design, learnings, and the way forward of the JOHAR skilling initiative.

It is imperative for India, with median age of population at 29 years and 64 percent in the working age group as of 2020, to build a skills base, ensure robust skilling for better wages at entry level, and facilitate the need for training and certification to have qualified, trained human resources 1. Jharkhand Opportunities for Harnessing Rural Growth.
2. High-value commodities include fruits and vegetables, dairy, fish, eggs, pulses, and small ruminants.4. First-level CSP and Senior CSP are jointly referred as CSPs or cadres in this note.
5. Jharkhand is a rain dependent state and the changing weather patterns with drying up/vanishing water bodies, are accentuating problems for rural producers and tribal households (https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/agriculture/drought-but-why-jharkhand-staring-at-food-insecurity-63484).
6. Refer to Note 10 in this series.Leveraging community institutions to support agri-business and livelihoods in Jharkhand, India.
South Asia Agriculture and Rural Growth Discussion Note Series Mar 2020 14 in developed countries is 60-90 percent of their total workforce, in India only 5 percent of its workforce (in the age group of 20-24 years) has formal vocational skills 3 .
It is imperative for India, with median age of population at 29 years and 64 percent in the working age group as of 2020, to build a skills base, ensure robust skilling for better wages at entry level, and facilitate the need for training and certification to have qualified, trained human resources.
Any initiatives on skill development and entrepreneurship across the country have been highly fragmented and constrained by poor knowledge and limited skill-sets of on-ground community service providers (CSPs) 4 , reflecting inadequate capacity.
Jharkhand has a large proportion of marginal and small landholders (84 percent), who mainly practice rainfed 5 ,single-crop subsistence farming, cultivating a low-yielding variety of paddy.
A vast majority of these rural producers are unable to transition to high-value commodities 6 .The average landholding per farmer is 1.17 hectares.

Government of India's Skilling Landscape
The skilling i landscape in India has undergone massive change in the past five years with revised strategies and models

JOHAR Skills Process Flow
The flowchart explains the process of training and skilling of the CSPs under JOHAR, achieved in collaboration with ASCI.
The JOHAR project has taken concrete steps towards developing a skilled cadre base in agro-allied sectors through its community-centric approach of capacity building of CSPs and offering work opportunities with compensation to gain valuable experience and earn livelihood in the process.Besides, these cadres are helping the project by building the capacity of PGs and exposing them with new learnings, which has a direct application on the production, increase in productivity, marketing, and sustainability of the project.

Research and appropriate training modules development.
59 percent of the country's total workforce is employed in agriculture in India.Building skills, creating job opportunities, and Image Credit : Rohit Jain 8. Takshashila is an initiative by NSDC under the Skill India mission.The portal serves as a dedicated online platform for the management of trainers and assessors of the Indian short-term skill ecosystem, functioning as the central repository of information concerning development of quality trainers and assessors.9. NSQF is a competency-based framework that organizes all qualifications according to a series of levels of knowledge, skills and aptitude.

Sourcing of candidates to train as a community service provider.
JOHAR project requires a pool of trainers and master trainers for the dissemination of knowledge among the rural communities.But, a significant challenge is the identification of the right person from the community who possess the right ability and attitude to execute the knowledge transfer effectively with the perspective of career growth.Planning beyond project lifecycle.Currently, as part of the project design, CSPs are paid by the project itself.This ensures an average income of INR 5,000-6,000 per month.The impetus for CSPs to work hard and find additional work on their own is less as the project provides a specific complacency, which limits the scope for engaging in entrepreneurial endeavors.

Enhancing focus on entrepreneurship.
A need-analysis in coordination with the domain leads needs to be carried out to explore the agroentrepreneurship avenues in the program and the project areas and engage with the trained cadres to take up entrepreneurial activities.We are grateful for the generous support from DFID.

A journey of a Master Trainer
Disclaimer: The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this note are entirely those of the author(s) and should not be attributed in any manner to the World Bank, to its affiliated organizations or to members of its Board of Executive Directors or the countries they represent.
10. KVKs are agricultural extension centers for imparting vocational training to practicing farmers, school dropouts and field level extension functionaries in the rural areas.
3. "Skilling inAgri-Sector for Growth & Sustainability -Mapping of Institutional Arrangements in the area of Education and Training in Agriculture" -CSIR NISTADS.
Creating a pool of trainers.The model of training CSPs, their assessment, certification, and enrolment on the Takshshila 8 platform served multiple purposes: (i) It built a skills base oriented towards training and certification of qualified human resources.(ii) CSPs received work opportunities and gained work experience, that was remunerative as well, which ensured their motivation to work, selfbelief and proactive engagement with communities and local officials.Further, as CSPs travelled for work, they get exposed to newer environments, came across new work opportunities and accepted new training assignments.Overall, a pool of cadres will contribute to the project areas beyond the life-cycle of the project.Acceptance of QP based skill training in the agro-allied sector.Awareness and training programs helped PG members understand the importance of skill training and certification.It will prompt many educated and semi-educated farmers or farm workers to undergo such training and certification.They can become self-employed and diversify their livelihood opportunities.
who belong to PGs and are from the rural community do not possess the requisite degree which impedes in building a trained workforce.Conducting round-the-year refresher training is crucial for theCSPs for their up-skilling, new learnings, and contribution towards the effective implementation of the project.Convergence with State Skill Development Missions and NSDC should be explored in which a structured training mechanism can be designed to strengthen the sustainability and qualifications of the CSPs.
Fortunately, the introduction of the JOHAR project in 2017 provided her with a tremendous opportunity.Recognizing her commitment and efforts as an APS, she was selected as Senior APS(Master Trainer)  in the JOHAR project.She received a comprehensive 200 hours of training administered by the JOHAR Livestock team and Asset & W with the support of the skills team.The training consisted of four modules: (i) aadharshila (foundation), (ii) bakari palan (goat rearing), (iii) suar palan (pig rearing) and (iv) murgi palan (poultry farming).These training modules are aligned with national QPs approved by the NSDC.After completion of the technical training (200 hours), Aarti received an additional 10 days of TOT (Training of Trainers) through ASCI.
Narrating her transformation, she says, "I always wanted to financially support my family and have my own identity, as well.Therefore, immediately after joining the Sakhi Mandal, I became an APS.However, the meager honorarium, along with my husband's income, was hardly enough to sustain my family.But getting selected for the Master Trainer was like a dream come true.Now, I am being hired to provide APS training in different districts, and my earning has increased manifold.Further, I can send my children to a good private school in Ranchi, and my family now enjoys a decent quality of life.Most importantly, not only my villagers but people of different districts recognize me and look at me with respect.My confidence has improved a lot, and I'm proud of my achievements".
ii such as the creation of a separate Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, revised policy on Skill Development and Entrepreneurship 2015, robust focus on convergence, formation of National Occupation Standards and Qualification Packs and declaration of new schemes like Startup Rural Entrepreneurship, Micro Units Development & Refinance Agency services to tribal and rural women, producer groups (PGs), and agro-producers across the JOHAR project areas.CSPs are self-employed and earn user fees on the provision of services, and also incrementally increase their income as they gain experience and broaden their knowledge base through continuous interactions with the community and other stakeholders.Over the past few years NRLP, through CSPs, has provided technical support services (to HVA, NTFP and livestock producer households) as well as on-ground capacity and institution building support to community institutions.JSLPS has collaborated with the Agriculture Skill Council of India (ASCI) for training, assessment and certification of trainers (Sr.CSP), certification of training centers and assessment and certification of trainees (first-level CSPs) under the relevant Qualification Packs (QPs) and National Occupational Standards (NOS) (for additional information concerning skilling landscape in India, refer to the box above).Under this agreement, ASCI is responsible for the training of trainers, assessing and 7. JSLPS, through the implementation of development and economic transformation projects (such as JOHAR, NRLM and NRLP), recognizes the need to skill rural producers, introduce them to new technologies and best practices.These will enable them to adopt new techniques, multiply the production of HVA, such as horticulture and other cash crops, and generate revenues.It is also facilitating opportunities in livestock and NTFP to make them more remunerative.It is, thus, essential to develop new mechanisms and strengthen existing ones to provide regular training and on-field handholding support to producers in agriculture and allied sectors..

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Multiple new technology platforms/ jobs sites (such as Baba Jobs, Youth4work) are available where CSPs can enrol themselves to seek further work opportunities.Such avenues need exploration within the purview of the project.However, there may be constraints if these job sites are not addressing agriculture and allied sectors.• Converge with Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) 10 and other such agencies that impart training to farmers, rural youth and grass roots level extension workers in broad-based agricultural production systems.JOHAR can converge with KVKs for skilling and refresher training courses, as well as engage in strategic deliberations with job sites to create work avenues to its trained CSP cadres beyond Takshshila.note is part of the South Asia Agriculture and Rural Growth Discussion Note Series, that seeks to disseminate operational learnings and implementation experiences from World Bank financed rural, agriculture and food systems programs in South Asia.