Agriculture courses in Maharashtra see 8% uptick in UG admissions, but job prospects remain grim

MUMBAI: Enrollment in undergraduate (UG) agriculture courses in Maharashtra has increased by around 8% after virtually remaining at a standstill for the last three years. However, the improved count has failed to allay the concerns around poor job prospects for agriculture graduates in the state.

Data from the Maharashtra Council for Agriculture Education and Research (MCAER) shows that as many as 13,656 aspirants were admitted to nine agriculture programmes in the current academic year. This figure oscillated between 12,600 and 12,800 from 2021-22 to 2023-24. The situation was much better a few years ago in 2017-18, when more than 15,000 students were enrolled, filling up almost all available UG seats in agriculture colleges.

Despite the rise, almost a quarter of the seats are still vacant, with the BTech Agriculture programme recording the highest proportion – 66% – of unclaimed seats.

In fact, the number of admitted students to the course dipped from last year’s 357 to 342. By comparison, more than 82% of 12,401 seats in the BSc Agriculture course were taken this year.

This comes against the backdrop of multiple agitations by agriculture students and graduates aspiring for government jobs during the last two years, as the employment opportunities in the field are dwindling steadily.

BTech Agriculture, MPSC changes

Last year, those preparing for competitive examinations in the state protested demanding the inclusion of 258 posts in the agriculture department in the Maharashtra Public Service Commission (MPSC) exam.

They had also objected to the MPSC exam being held on the same day as an Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS) test, forcing candidates to choose one and miss the other.

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Earlier, in 2023, agriculture engineering students were up in arms after MPSC changed the pattern for the Maharashtra Agriculture Service Exam, reducing the proportion of questions related to their subjects. The change, according to the protesters, favoured students in the traditional agriculture programme at the expense of those enrolled in the professional course.

Agriculture courses: Women, MHT CET papers

To be sure, most of the professional courses, especially engineering and management, witnessed a significant uptick in admissions this academic year.

The growth was driven, in large part, by girls who benefited from the state government’s decision to waive the fees of female students with annual family income less than Rs 8 lakh enrolled in professional courses.

However, agriculture saw a more even increase across genders.

Also read Uttar Pradesh: BSc Agriculture graduates wait years for government jobs as agencies ‘lack coordination’

Maharashtra has 207 agriculture colleges, which are affiliated to four public universities. Apart from agriculture, they offer courses in horticulture, fisheries, forestry, biotechnology, food technology and agriculture business management.

According to Yashwant Sale, director (education) at MCAER, one of the factors behind higher enrollment is the government changing the admission criterion for BTech Food Technology, allowing both physics-chemistry-mathematics (PCM) and physics-chemistry-biology (PCB) candidates in Maharashtra Common Entrance Test (MHT-CET) to pursue the course.

Earlier, only those who opted for the first group of papers (PCM) were permitted. This led to the B Tech Food Tech’s enrollment jumping from 516 to 959 in a span of a year, while the number of vacancies halved, from two-thirds to one-third of seats.

“If a similar concession is made for the engineering programme, it would see a similar improvement,” Sale suggested.

He added that bulk of the vacancies are in private colleges, while government institutions have largely filled their seats. “The students have created a pecking order of colleges, based on the feedback from their seniors. They prefer to opt for regular BA, BCom programmes instead of going to the lower-rung institutes,” he said.

Agriculture jobs decline

Apart from admission criteria and the quality of education, the biggest worry among agriculture educators is the employment scenario in the state. According to a faculty member from a government agriculture college in Western Maharashtra, the majority of graduates are unable to find well-paying jobs aligned with their expertise.

“The placement situation across the state is worrisome. At our college, barely 10-15 students out of 200 graduates find jobs on campus, with only a handful of small companies visiting the institute. The freshers hardly get Rs 15,000 to 20,000 monthly salary, and the only jobs available to them are in sales,” said the teacher.

The faculty opined that the job market is constrained due to the stagnancy in the agriculture manufacturing sector in the country. “For example, when it comes to fertilizers, we have to import phosphorus and sulfur, as urea is the only thing we produce,” he said.

The agriculture industry relying on generalists instead of experts for research in areas such as agronomy has also shrunk the opportunities for graduates. Agri engineers also face competition from other engineers, said the educator.

Incidentally, Western Maharashtra is a relatively prosperous region of the state and is known for its farming advances and higher concentration of agriculture-allied industries.

Also read Organic farming, MBA: Modern agri courses at new agricultural universities despite staff, land shortage

To mitigate this situation, the government is now nudging students towards entrepreneurship, instead of having them chase ever-elusive jobs.

Sale said that the new curriculum designed by MCAER, in light of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) Sixth Deans Committee Report, emphasises practical learning and skill development. This will allow students to explore entrepreneurship opportunities in a variety of areas such as mushroom cultivation and fish farming.

“The learners are required to undergo on-the-job training in the final year of their course. They can choose vocations of their choice,” he said.

When asked if the authority has any plans to help students with raising capital through investors for their venture, Sale said that the colleges are for now only providing training.

“Those who have money can right away go for entrepreneurship. Others may work somewhere for a while before starting their own business,” he said.