Agricultural education in India: a sociological perspective

The paper traces the evolution of agricultural education in India in terms of its organization, its perceived role in rural development, and the chang ing social backgrounds of students enrolling in agricultural education. It focuses on issues such as inequalities, changing attitudes among graduates, technology transfer, job segmentation and gender in agricultural education . The paper identifies shortcomings in the present education system with re gard to meeting societal needs. The authors propose the institutionalizatio n and expansion of lower-level agricultural education and an aggressive pro gramme of positive discrimination in favour of rural sections of the commun ity, both in education and employment, so as to make agricultural education and those it trains relevant to the Indian context.