In this essay we will discuss about:- 1. Agricultural Education during British Rule 2. Agricultural Education during Post-Independence 3. Concept of Land-Grant University 4. Agricultural Research and Extension.
Agricultural Education and Research in India
Essay Contents:
- Essay on Agricultural Education during British Rule
- Essay on Agricultural Education during Post-Independence
- Essay on the Concept of Land-Grant University
- Essay on Agricultural Research and Extension
Essay # 1. Agricultural Education during British Rule:
The British established a Revenue and Agricultural Department during 1881. Severe famine struck India in 1876 and the Famine Commission Report recommended improved agriculture for security against disastrous failure in food supply.
Accordingly, Dr John Augustus Voeleker, Consulting Chemist of the Royal Agricultural Society of England arrived in India on 10 December 1889 to advise upon the best course to be adapted. He recommended the spread of agricultural education.
Accordingly, to start with, an agricultural chemist for conducting research and an assistant agricultural chemist for teaching agricultural subjects were appointed at Poona, Dehra Dun and Saidapet. Necessity for a well organised department of agriculture with responsibility for teaching, research and extension was felt by last quarter of nineteenth century.
The unprecedented famine of 1899-1900 convinced Lord Curzon, the then Viceroy of India, that India must pay urgent attention to agriculture. In 1905, an Agricultural Research Institute, an Experimental Farm and an Agricultural College at Pusa in Bihar were established.
It was also decided to divide each province (state) into a number of “Circles” and each circle to have an experimental farm on the basis of regional differences in soil and climate under a Deputy Director of Agriculture.
These farms were to function also as depots for seed, manure and implements. Colleges were accordingly recognised/started at Kanpur (1906), Nagpur (1906), LayIIpur (1906). Coimbatore (1906) and Poona (1907).
The Indian Agricultural Research Institute, which was established primarily as research institute also, developed certain educational functions and started offering specialised post-graduate courses in the area of their specialisation.
During the half century in which some official attention has been given to agriculture, a number of developments have provided the beginnings of agricultural programme and policy.
The following 21 institutions for higher educational in agriculture have been established up to 1947-48:
1. Agra:
Balwant Rajput College. Agricultural section opened (1941).
2. Allahabad:
Allahabad Agricultural Institute (besides B Sc (Ag) also B Sc in Agricultural Engineering and Indian Dairy Diploma).
3. Amritsar:
Government Agricultural College. Located at Khalsa College, Amritsar (1947).
4. Anand:
Bansilal Amritlal College of Agriculture (1947).
5. Banaras:
College of Agriculture, Banaras Hindu University (1945); besides first degree, also M Sc in Agricultural botany for a number of years.
6. Bangalore:
Agricultural College and Research Institute, Hebbal (1946).
7. Bangalore:
Indian Dairy Research Institute, Post-graduate work (1944).
8. Baptala (Madras Presidency):
Agricultural College (1945).
9. Coimbatore:
Agricultural College and Research Institute. Affiliated to the Madras University (1932).
10. Delhi:
Central College of Agriculture (1947).
11. Delhi:
Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Pusa, New Delhi (Post-graduate work; established at Pusa, Bihar in 1903, shifted to New Pusa, Delhi in 1936).
12. Dharwar:
College of Agriculture (1947).
13. Hyderabad (Deccan):
Osmania College of Agriculture (1946).
14. Indore:
Institute of Plant Industry, Post-graduate work (1924).
15. Kanpur:
Government Agricultural College. First degree and Post-graduate work (1906).
16. Khamgaon:
GS College of Science and Agriculture. Agricultural section opened (1948).
17. Lakhaoti:
Amar Singh KEMU Jat College. Agricultural section opened (1941).
18. Mukteswar (also at Izatnagar):
Indian Veterinary Research Institute.
19. Nagpur:
College of Agriculture. Affiliated to Nagpur University (1945).
20. Poona:
College of Agriculture (1947).
21. Sabour (Bhagalpur):
Bihar Agricultural College (1945).
According to the heads of agricultural schools, not more than two or three per cent of the graduates return to agricultural communities. In 1936-37, Sir John Russell, Director of the great Rothamstead Experimental Station of England, visited India at the request of the Imperial Council of Agricultural Research, to review the condition of Indian agriculture.
After an extended tour of agricultural stations and villages, he reported that, in general, the men who actually till the soil are scarcely touched by the national programme of agricultural education. The food crises created by Second World War and the Bengal famine of 1943 became matters of great concern to the British Government. Grow More Food Campaign was launched in 1942.
There was great demand for agricultural graduates, which further increased due to lunching of Community Development Program in 1952 and the National Extension Service Program in 1953. Increasing demand for agricultural graduates prompted establishment of a number of private agricultural colleges (mostly in UP), affiliated to general universities.
Essay # 2. Agricultural Education during Post-Independence:
In 1948, there were only seventeen agricultural colleges and one agricultural engineering college in India. Most of the new agricultural colleges were affiliated to existing general universities and naturally fell into traditional setup of the older institutions, although the nature of discipline called for a different pattern. As such, the quality of agricultural education, with the exception of a few institutions, remained extremely poor.
The University Education Commission appointed by the Government of India in 1948 to review the higher education recommended immediate steps to improve the quality of agricultural education in the country to enable self-sufficiency in food-grain production. The Commission finally recommended a system of Rural Universities based on Land-Grant University pattern of USA.
However, it was felt by many that the system needs certain changes to suit agricultural education in India. In the contest of growing food shortage at that time, the Union Ministry of Food and Agriculture started consultations with the United States Technical Cooperation Mission.
A joint Indo-American team was constituted to study the problem in depth and recommend the lines on which the Rural Universities should be established. The report of the Indo-American team (1955) went much further than the University Education Commission.
Though, it did not expressly differ from the Commission, its emphasis was so much different. The Commission had thought in terms of expanding higher education in a rural setting and bridging the gulf between the rural and the urban. It did not think specifically of agricultural higher education or of promoting research on the lines Land-Grant Colleges, much less of integrating teaching, research and extension work.
The team on the other hand came to the conclusion that a Rural University, very similar to Land-Grant, would be an effective solution of the problem of Indian agricultural education within the framework of Commissions pattern. A tacit change, thus, come over the form of the Rural University idea.
First concern of the team was with strengthening of postgraduate teaching and research in agricultural subjects. Other recommendations proposed effective coordination of agricultural education, research and extension in the lines of the Land-Grant Universities.
The team report, thus, laid the true foundation for the developments, which eventually led to the creation of Agricultural Universities and reinforced the necessity and value of research in agricultural services of India.
In view of the demands from different states for establishing Agricultural Universities, even without understanding the Land-Grant concept, the team laid down specific pre-conditions to be fulfilled before the central Government of India considers such requests.
The state of Uttar Pradesh was the only state, which had its detailed plan, blue print and farm ready for establishing the Agricultural University by 1956. The Government of India agreed to setting up of the Agricultural University at Pantnagar, only as an experimental measure in the Second Five Year Plan, 1960. However, when the bill for incorporating the university came before the UP legislature, it met with a great deal of criticism and objections.
As such, the Government of India appointed a committee headed by Dr Ralph W Cumming to advise the state governments on the legislation for establishment of Agricultural Universities. The committee report spelled out the distinctive features of Agricultural Universities as compared with the existing general universities. On the recommendations made by the committee, the ICAR developed a Model Act in 1966, which could be adopted with such changes deemed necessary by the newly developing Agricultural Universities.
From 1960 to 1965, during the Fourth Five Year Plan, several Agricultural Universities came into existence in different states. Presently (2010), there are around 48 State Agricultural Universities (SAUs), in different states, besides one Central Agricultural University at Imphal (Manipur), one deemed Agricultural University (IARI, New Delhi) and one University of Horticulture and Forestry at Solan in Himachal Pradesh.
Essay # 3. The Concept of Land-Grant University:
The Land-Grant Universities were created in response to the private universities of the day in USA. The basic concept was that they should provide upper level education, especially in agriculture and mechanical arts. But it carried with it the idea that the university would generate new knowledge and apply it to the problems of society.
Every area of activity was to be a legitimate subject of intellectual equality. It is important to emphasize that there is nothing in that concept that limits it to agriculture and mechanical arts. In addition to the notion of providing mass education for society, the essence of the Land-Grant University was traditionally a strong institutional mission orientation.
The idea was that the university had a responsibility to address the problems of society and to apply the tools of science and technology to the solution of those problems. This gave rise to the familiar description of such universities as being characterised by a tripartite mission of teaching, research and extension.
On the agricultural side, these tripartite missions were characterised by separate funding and separate organisations or the three functions: College of Agriculture, Agricultural Experimental Station and Agricultural Extension Service.
They were managed and administered with a great deal of mission zeal and tended to be rewarded only as they contributed to the administratively determined mission of the institute. Moreover, they were rewarded as they contributed to the solutions of society’s problems and not for publication in scholarly journals.
Essay # 4. Agricultural Research and Extension:
The ICAR coordinates agricultural research, veterinary related research and home science research, besides extension activities of all the three faculties. Presently, the ICAR coordinates agricultural research in the country through its wide network of National/Central Research Institutes, National Research Centres and Project Directorates in addition to about 600 Krishi Vigyan Kendras.
Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR):
The ICAR, New Delhi, is an autonomous organisation under the Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE), Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India. Formerly known as Imperial Council of Agricultural Research, it was established on 16 July 1929 in pursuance of the report of the Royal Commission on Agriculture.
The council is the apex body for coordinating, guiding and managing research and education in agriculture including horticulture, fisheries and animal sciences in the country. With over 90 ICAR institutes and 48 agricultural universities (2010) spread across the country, this is one of the largest national agricultural systems in the world.
Its mandate is:
1. To plan, undertake, aid, promote and co-ordinate education, research and its application in agriculture, agroforestry, animal husbandry, fisheries, home science and allied sciences.
2. To act as clearing house of research and general information relating to agriculture, animal husbandry, home science and fisheries through its publications and information system and instituting and promoting transfer of technology programmes.
3. To provide, undertake and promote consultancy services in the fields of education, research, training and dissemination of information in agriculture, agroforestry, animal husbandry, fisheries, home science and allied sciences.
4. To look into problems relating to broader areas of rural development concerning agriculture, including post-harvest technology, by developing cooperative programmes with other organisations such as the Indian Council of Social Sciences Research, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre and Universities.
5. To do other things considered necessary to attain objectives of the society.
6. Yashpal Committee to advice on renovation and rejuvenation of higher education.
7. National Commission for Higher Education and Research, which would be a unified supreme body to regulate all branches of higher education including agricultural education.
The following ICAR merits and awards are available to the institutions, scientists and students for outstanding contributions in their fields of specialisation:
1. Sardar Patel Outstanding ICAR Institution Award.
2. Choudhary Devi Lai Outstanding All India Coordinated Research Project Award.
3. Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Award.
4. Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed Award for Tribal Areas.
5. Hari Om Ashram Trust Award.
6. Jawaharlal Nehru Award.
7. Vasantrao Naik Award.
8. Lai Bahadur Shastri Young Scientist Award.
9. Bharat Ratna Dr C Subramaniam Outstanding Teacher Award.
10. Punjab Rao Deshmukh Woman Agricultural Scientist Award.
11. Chaudhary Charan Singh Award for Excellence in Journalism in Agricultural Research and Development.
12. NG Ranga Farmer Award for Diversified Agriculture.
13. Jagjivan Ram Kisan Puruskar.
14. Swamy Sahajanand Saraswati Extension Scientist/ Worker Award.
15. ICAR Award for Outstanding Multidisciplinary Team Research in Agriculture and Allied Sciences.
16. National Krishi Vigyan Kendra Award.
17. Dr Rajendra Prasad Puruskar for Technical Books in Hindi in the Field of Agriculture and Allied Sciences.
National Agricultural Innovation Project-NAIP (2005):
Agriculture is and will continue to be the main driver of country’s economic growth with social justice. Our agriculture did extremely well and it was on the ascendancy till the mid- nineties but after that the growth slowed down. Since 1996-97, the growth rate of agricultural GDP has been, on an average, 1.75 per cent per year in contrast with the rate of 4.0 per cent that is required.
On the other hand, the farmer has been facing rising input costs, declining returns from the inputs, uncertain market, increasing role of market in agriculture and blurring of distinction between the domestic market and the international market. To assist the farmer in these changing contexts, new strategies and innovative solutions are urgently required which in turn will require technological support.
Hence, the agricultural research system which generates technologies has to conduct the business of agricultural research in an innovative way. The World Bank aided National Agricultural Innovation Project (NAIP) has been conceived to pilot this innovation in conducting agricultural research.
The basic principles are:
a. To give the agricultural research and technology development system, an explicit development and business perspective through innovative models. In other words, the agricultural research system should be able to support agriculture as a business venture and also as a means of security of livelihood of the rural Indian while maintaining excellence in science.
b. To make the National Agricultural Research System a ‘pluralistic’ system where every organisation having stake in agricultural research: public, private or civil society, has to play a role.
c. Working in well-defined partnership groups with clear common goals and understanding on sharing responsibilities and benefit.
d. Funding through competition so that a wide choice of excellent innovative ideas come in from the stakeholders themselves.
e. Work with focus, plan and time frames.
f. Develop well-tested models for application of agricultural research and technology for profitability of farming, income generation and poverty alleviation.
Total budget is US $ 250 million: the World Bank will fund US $ 200 million as credit and US S 50 million by the Government of India.
The NAIP will function through four components:
1. The ICAR as the catalysing agent for the management of change in the Indian NARS.
2. Research on production to consumption systems (PCS).
3. Research on sustainable rural livelihood security (SRLS).
4. Basic and strategic research (BSR) in the frontier areas of agricultural sciences.