Governor and Chancellor of Acharya NG Ranga Agricultural University (ANGRAU) Biswa Bhusan Harichandan said he wishes to see the varsity transform into a world-class institution, for which it will have to play a stellar role in teaching and research activities.
The Governor made the observations while taking part virtually in the 50th Annual Convocation celebrations of the university held at Mahati Auditorium in Tirupati on Tuesday.
Mr. Harichandan congratulated winners of gold medals, awards and distinctions and appreciated their efforts and hailed them as true ambassadors of the university.
The Governor also congratulated Vice-Chancellor A. Vishnuvardhan Reddy and his team for achieving 13th rank among national agricultural universities for the 2019-20 academic year assessed by the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR).
“Teaching skills of the faculty have to be upgraded from time to time to achieve excellence in research by allowing academic freedom, providing well-equipped facilities for teaching, research, extension and administration,” said the Governor.
While suggesting that ANGRAU could take up projects under Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) mode in association with agro-industries to achieve synergy in solving field problems and benefit the students in terms of employability, fellowships, curriculum revision, collaborative research, entrepreneurial skills, and sharing of resources.
He added that developing sustainable, low-cost, easily adaptable, climate smart agricultural technologies is the need of the hour for Indian agriculture. Going by the demand for food security at the national level, there is a need to boost crop productivity by release of crop varieties that have high yield potential and are resistant to pests and diseases, the Governor said.
Mr. Harichandan drew attention to recent statistics released by the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), according to which the country holds the largest undernourished population in the world. “About 14% of the population and 20% of our children below five years of age are underweight, 34.7% of them are stunted, and 51.4% of women in reproductive age are anaemic,” said the Governor. He said there is a pressing need to overcome malnourishment, and agricultural universities have to do cutting-edge research on bio-fortification of crops, which is a cost-effective and a sustainable way to overcome the problem of malnutrition.
The Governor added that he was happy to learn that ANGRAU, through its innovative extension methods, has devised novel strategies such as ‘Massive Open Online Courses’ through the Open and Distance Learning Centre (ODLC), offering certificate courses in organic farming, terrace gardening, bee-keeping, mushroom production, millet promotion and agricultural journalism.
