City based Siksha 'O' Anusandhan (SoA) University has opened a separate institute for agricultural sciences, the first such college to be set up in the private sector in eastern India.
The Institute of Agricultural Sciences with an intake capacity of 120 students, was inaugurated by the vice chancellor of Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT) Manoranjan Kar.
Speaking on the occasion, Kar said, while 24,000 graduates in agriculture and other allied sciences are churned out by various colleges in the country now, there would be need for 40,000 graduates by 2020.
There are 65 agricultural universities in the country at present, but the demand for agricultural science was on the rise, he added.
Stating that the newly admitted students have opted for a good branch of science that provides ample employment opportunities, he urged the students to have the mindset of setting up their own enterprises.
D P Ray, former vice chancellor of OUAT said, though there were 300 private agriculture colleges in the country, there were none in the entire east and north-east.
This is the ninth institute under SoA University offering professional courses. The other eight institutes in which the SoA is imparting education are engineering, medicine, dental science, management, hotel management, law, pharmacy and nursing.
