Vadodara based Parul University offers 4-year BSc Agriculture program

With India and the world's focus on agriculture, there has been a growing need for colleges offering agriculture courses. There are few Universities across Gujarat too which offer this course. Among them is Vadodara based Parul University that has been conducting a 4-yearBSc Agriculture (Hon) programme since 2016-17.

Last year, there was some objection raised by State Agricultural University about the autonomy of Parul University to undertake Agricultural courses. However, under Section 22 of UGC Act, the University has been empowered to grant a BSc degree in Agriculture. This enabled the Gujarat High Court to rule in favour of the University. Also, in an RTI application it was made clear by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) that ICAR is a body which discharges the function of framing curriculum for agricultural courses and awarding accreditation to Government Agricultural Universities. It was also made clear in this RTI application that ICAR had nothing to do with granting approvals to Universities for running any course related to agriculture.

The University has had 240 students taking up this prestigious programme annually which has been increased to 300 seats this year owing to increasing demand. This is the only private University across India that provides 109 acres of land for practical training and field exposure. Agriculture students are also provided a state-of-art green house and latest irrigation techniques. Recently, the students cultivated 254 different species of flowers through which they got exposure in field of Floriculture. The University also trains students for large scale contract farming, organic farming, latest techniques of bore well formation, ground water recharging, use of alternative energy resources, latest schemes of Central and State Government through their Agricultural Ministries and Narmada Yojna. Study tourswere conducted to Shimla, Kutch and Nasik for acquiring knowledge on out of the box farming techniques for apple, date palm and mango.

The University has recently signed an MoU with People's Friendship University, Moscow, Russia. Seven students will visit Moscow for a duration of 6 weeks, during which the students will learn 3 subjects of their curriculum and will also undertake project work. Parul University has tie ups with reputed agriculture, pharmacy and research industries such as GSFC, Sun Pharma, Zydus, Cadila, Torrent and many others for the sake of students' internships and jobs.

To top it all, the Parul University was recently recognized by ET Now as the Best Agriculture College in India. This is surely one Agricultural course to look out for!

It is worthwhile to note that the agriculture program of Parul University is spearheaded by Dr. H.S. Vijaykumar who is Ex. Vice Chancellor of Dharwad Agricultural University and he has played pivotal role in the Indian Council for Agricultural Research of the formation of syllabus and academic guidelines. He is also considered as one of the eminent educationalist in the field of agricultural education. Under his leadership the University has quickly established the College of Agriculture as per the latest recommendations of ICAR and as a result in a short span of 3 years Parul University has been bestowed upon this prestigious award in Agriculture education.

Salient Features of University:
• Strong Tie-ups with Agriculture Industries
• 53 Acres of Horticultural Farm land
• Exposure to Indoor and Artificial Plantations

Highly Qualified & Experienced Teachers:
• Ph. D and NET qualified teachers of government agricultural universities
• Exposure to floriculture by way of cultivation of 254 species of flowers
• Modular teaching by experts from agricultural industries
• Special training of latest irrigation & ground water recharging techniques
• Use of solar & wind energy for modern farming

Exposure to Government schemes and special farming techniques:
• Mentoring of students by government employees for Narmada Yojna and various central & state government schemes for promotion of agriculture in India
• Study tours to Shimla, Kutchh and Nashik for exposure on special farming techniques for cultivation of apple, date palm and mango
• Special training of greenhouse technology

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