Nagpur, Jul 2:
The country’s first and only private open agriculture university, which
began functioning here in January this year, has opened its doors for
farmers offering them courses without any age bar and qualification
restriction.
“Our syllabus and curriculm are entirely different than other
universities and are innovative. We are conducting classes on
out-demonstration farms near here in Katol and the response is good,”
Chancellor of Arvind Agricultural (Open and Virtual) University, Dr
Mukund Gaikwad said.
The Arvind Agriculture Open and Virtual University will use
high-technology involving experts of various agro-produce in the world
for sharing their experiences and teaching farmers directly here in
virtual classrooms, he told PTI.
The widely travelled Chancellor said it will tie-up with leading
agriculture universities for knowledge transfer and field visits.
He said that marketing, one of the basic bottlenecks in agriculture, is being addressed by the university.
“This summer we have started with exporting 700 tonnes of mango from
Western Maharashtra. Now, plans are afoot to help Vidarbha farmers by
exporting vegetables from this region. As a pilot project we have been
growing vegetables at our demonstration field at Wadvihira in Katol
(Nagpur rural). We plan to export 500 tonnes of vegetables,” he said.
“Farmers of Vidarbha need to take up innovative measures like
diversifying to vegetables and pulses besides cash crops like cotton and
soyabean to increase their income. Only if they do this, the economic
distress that has led to the suicide crisis can be resolved,” Gaikwad
said.
Arvind University aims at a paradigm shift in farm education by offering
tailor-made courses and thats why we have chalked out 50 courses that
would range from a daylong workshop to four-year Ratna without any bar
for age or qualification, he added.
“One of the basic objectives behind starting the first open agriculture
university in the suicide-crisis-hit Vidarbha region, is to root out
despondency among young farmers about ills of agriculture.If technology
and best practices are adopted, farming can be a boon and not a bane,”
the senior academician asserted.
After three decades of teaching in conventional farm colleges, he took
voluntary retirement to tour world as a visiting professor.
Now, he has accepted the assignment to build the open university
promoted by Maharashtra’s former Agriculture Minister and also former
Pradesh Congress Committee chief, Ranjeet Deshmukh.
Gaikwad says in last four decades, traditional agricultural universities have failed miserably.
“They are white elephants and have hardly done any path-breaking
research that could be implemented by farmers. These farm colleges have
become factories churning out degree holders,” he lamented.
Most of the development in agriculture sector is through private
enterprise and not through the government-aided farm universities’
agriculture department, he pointed out.
Source: http://to.ly/md15
