India needs ATIs like ITIs:

In every village in India when a father finds his offspring not doing well in school studies, the favourite advice is "you better take up agriculture as your career". When the father does not hold land or there is no possibility of continuous employment in agriculture the offspring is sent to a city or town for doing some low paid job. This is one of the reasons cities are growing at high speed in population.
Environmental limitations are also ignored. City like Mumbai which has limited land availability is loaded more than double with population. This does increases problems of city and environmental norms are destroyed considering this as unavoidable necessity. Gist of my thinking is on one side agriculture is the most needed field for survival of a human being considered as a field for unskilled persons and on the other side problems of cities are increased. Indians must accept agriculture needs skills and these must be developed for feeding ever increasing population.

When industrial revolution took place, Industrial Training Institutes were established to provide skilled manpower to industries. These institutes contributed to a great extent in fast growth of industries. Modern philosophy is 'Skills'. Agriculture is no exception to this philosophy. One of the area so far neglected must be strengthen to make India self sufficient.

Agricultural Training Institutes is a need of the day and inescapable necessity. These institutes must be established in rural area to train not only agriculture skills but also management and facilities offered by the government. Education in these institutes must be free to every one irrespective of economical status. Offsprings of landless parents must also be given free lodging and boarding facilities. If such facilities are not given landless parent would be forced not to send their offsprings as otherwise these children may earn a small sum and help their families. This income would be lost during training period.

Training in these institutes may be divided in 3 or more parts. First part should be skills needed for day to day work in the field and equipment available for efficient and speedy work. Second part should be facilities offered by the government and other institutions connected with agriculture. This should include side business like poultry, milk etc. The third step should be management, marketing and accounting. No farmer in India maintains account and is at mercy of intermediate agents.

This needs a serious thought.