By Dr. Waseem Ahmad

In Kashmir’s fertile land, a man with no degree is growing something bigger than crops. He’s building a future. Every morning he’s in the field by sunrise, sowing seeds, tending soil, and making decisions that will feed his family, and likely others too. He didn’t sit through lectures on soil science or write papers on climate-resilient farming. He just did the work. And the land responded.

Meanwhile, many graduates with degrees in agriculture are miles away from the field, literally and figuratively. They’re in banks, stamping passports at airports, working retail counters or stuck behind government desks. Their education was rooted in agriculture, but their careers are not.

It’s not just about individual choices. There’s a deeper problem in how agriculture is taught, perceived, and practiced.

Start with the classrooms. Agricultural education still leans heavily on textbooks, formulas, and the occasional field trip. Students know how to calculate irrigation needs or write a pest control plan, but many have never actually run a farm, sold produce, or faced a failed crop. They’re trained to be technicians, not entrepreneurs.

That gap between knowledge and real-world readiness is widening. When these graduates step out, the idea of starting a farm feels risky and unfamiliar.........

© Kashmir Observer