Agri-varsity courses for farmers without age, qualification bar

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 said.

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. hese 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.