AGRICULTURE is the force to propel economic growth in our country. Also, it provides livelihood to majority of population directly or indirectly. The ushering of green, white, yellow and blue revolutions and the comfortable food grain situation that resulted, are the outcome of capable human resource developed by the agricultural education system. However, fast-changing agricultural scenario and emerging challenges can't be overlooked. The ongoing process of liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation after the implementation of the WTO accord has thrown up numerous challenges for the prevailing agricultural education system. Therefore, while taking justifiable pride in achievements, it is difficult to overlook stagnation in agricultural production, rising unemployment, fast degrading natural resources and resultant declining agricultural growth in recent years. To meet these challenges, it is imperative to reorient our agri-education to produce competent manpower. The present system needs to be more flexible, providing students to opt for courses of their interest, besides compulsory courses following "cafeteria approach'. There should be sufficient number of courses to fulfil the need of interdisciplinary specialisations. The Indian Council of Agricultural Research, having its agricultural education wing established in 1966, has primary responsibility to coordinate and make agri-education more relevant and responsive to the emerging societal demands. Four Deans' committees constituted so far have provided guidelines for the amelioration of undergraduate teaching programmes from time to time. The revision and restructuring of the course curricula for postgraduate programmes are underway by a committee constituted by the ICAR under the chairmanship of Dr J. C. Katyal, Vice-Chancellor, Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, to bring precision and uniformity. However, due to diverse nature and demands of state agriculture, there is room and provision for SAUs to make necessary changes within the basic framework to meet the regional considerations. It is important that while implementing various modifications, this education system should become more responsive to market demands, farmers aspirations and industrial needs. Equally important is to sensitise students to agricultural problems in context of recent developments. The students should put efforts to understand complex problems and develop an aptitude to work in multidisciplinary environment. Academic programmes have to be suitably revised so as to reflect modern realities, challenges and opportunities. The competence of today's graduates doesn't adequately meet the requirements of emerging market trends. The fast-changing market necessitates a complete re-look at the curricula content as well its delivery to enable the graduates to meet the expectations of stakeholders for propelling the growth of agriculture. Academic programmes should realign with emerging changes, build sustainability perspective, and move from mono disciplinary basic to multidisciplinary applied subjects and professional courses. There is need for inclusion of courses on the new emerging sciences and technologies like environmental sciences precision farming, biotechnology, microbiology, meteorology, GIS and GPA, agricultural marketing, agribusiness management, international trade, post-harvest technologies, value addition and information-related space technology, etc. In the present context, priority should be given to courses on natural resources management. Agribusiness is a new and fast-expanding area which has great potential having vast opportunities. New supermarket chains have come up to deal with the increasing domestic demands and tremendous export potential of farm produce. A number of multinationals have already entered and many are expected to follow. Investment of about US$ 5.6 billion by Reliance Fresh in retail chain of stores is likely to bring a change and usher a new era in retail market of fresh farm produce. Rothschild (UK) and Bharti Group collaboration is focusing on export of vegetables and fresh fruits from Punjab to the US, Canada and certain Asian countries. Pepsico has enhanced farmers' interest in production of basmati rice, potatoes, chilies, barley, etc. A special five-year programme on the plantation of sweet orange trees in Punjab will boost the Tropicana juice production. Besides this, programmes are underway to extend benefits of Internet facilities to farmers. A number of corporate as well as cooperatives are expanding business with their entry into farming like contract farming for seed production and floriculture. While these developments will create enormous job opportunities for agriculture graduates, it is equally important for such graduates to be agriculture literate and even experts, which is only possible through necessary changes in existing curricula to make agricultural education more relevant to meet the market demands. Practical training is an integral and essential component which requires due consideration. The delivery of ever-expanding knowledge base and enormous amount of information within the same timeframe has adversely affected practical training both qualitatively and quantitatively. It needs its due place in this performing type of education, where competence is possible primarily through practical. Therefore, enough practical rural/on field/in-plant experience should be imparted to graduating students, to strengthen skill development. This is possible through experiential learning by placing graduating students to work in farms, in private and public sector industrial units associated with agriculture like agro processing units, pesticide and agrochemical industry and commercial farms, e.g., seed, flowers and vegetable production. Introduction of internship for a prescribed period is advisable for which pilot training units may be established in SAUs itself. Experience attained during internship can help the passing out graduates for setting up of agribusiness activities and agro service centres. Information and communication technologies (ICT) have expanded at a spectacular speed, and their use in agricultural education can't be ignored any more. It could help in the delivery of quality education and training programmes in agriculture and allied fields to the people living in remote areas. However, at present there is little training in agri-education teaching programmes to make our students ICT literates. It is high time to design courses on agri-informatics to make agriculture graduates competent enough to take full advantage of available database and make advancements with frontier knowledge. Emphasis needs to be given on crafting job-oriented, add-on courses to meet the need for vocational trainings in animal husbandry and dairy technology, seed production, apiculture, sericulture, mushroom cultivation, farm machines, etc. Another major factor is to check the decline in teaching methodology and quality of instructions being imparted to students. It is mainly due to lack of faculty competence in new and emerging frontier areas, extensive inbreeding and lack of adequate teaching skill and will. The teaching methodology should include case studies, problem-solving approach, practical exercises, workshops and brainstorming sessions. To improve faculty competence, it requires to identify and encourage core teachers, develop minimum norms and standards for teaching, impose accountability and provide opportunities for skill enhancement in specialised areas to make agri-education more modern and demand driven. The writer is Director Research, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar