Organic farming, MBA: Modern agri courses at new agricultural universities despite staff, land shortage

NEW DELHI: Inspired by his grandfather and uncle, Nandana Nath is pursuing a bachelor’s in fisheries science (B.F.Sc) at Rani Lakshmi Bai Central Agricultural University (RLBCAU), Jhansi. Her wish to study “something different from traditional courses” that also offers a promising future led her to the newest central agricultural university in India.

Nath is in the first year of the four-year B.F.Sc course at RLBCAU’s College of Fisheries in Datia, Madhya Pradesh. This is the first batch and her admission was through the Common University Entrance Test-Undergraduate (CUET UG) in 2023.

“I am lucky to get admission in this central university... We have separate labs and we do experiments. Faculties and experts from the fisheries field come to train us. We also meet fishers regularly,” Nath told Careers360. “The diversity of the student group is also helping us learn more about agricultural practices and climates of other states.” Nath was born in Kerala but raised in Delhi. She hopes to do research in the field and equip fishermen with new tools and technologies.

The RLBCAU started functioning from 2014 and is the third central agricultural university, after Dr Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Samastipur, (set up in 1970) and Central Agriculture University, Imphal (1993).

Apart from RLBCAU, eight state agricultural universities have come up in the last decade. Several face administrative problems related to land and funding.

New agriculture university: 8 in 10 years

The nine new agricultural universities are listed below.

New agriculture universities and states

MGUHF Durg and AUJ are operating in temporary campuses and are also short of qualified faculty.

“The location of RLBCAU is in central India and better than that of the other two central universities. Besides, it is growing rapidly and launching new courses and establishing new campuses. Last year, the university established the College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences and College of Fisheries in Madhya Pradesh’s Datia. It is a new central university and has a lot of resources to expand. We have no shortage of funds for research and lab equipment,” said Nilesh Kumar Rajput, assistant professor at College of Fisheries, RLBCAU. “We have students from all over India. There are 20 students – 11 girls and nine boys – from eight states in the first batch of B.F.Sc.”

RLBCAU is headquartered in Jhansi in the Bundelkhand region that covers six districts of Madhya Pradesh – Chhatarpur, Damoh, Datia, Panna, Sagar and Tikamgarh – and seven of Uttar Pradesh – Banda, Chitrakoot, Hamirpur, Jalaun, Jhansi, Lalitpur and Mahoba.

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At MGUHF in Chhattisgarh, also a central Indian state, the situation is rather different. “We are operating from a temporary building provided by the government. The construction work for our permanent campus in Durg is 40% complete and it will take another two years for completion,” said Ramlakhan Khare, registrar, MGUHF, Durg.

“Our colleges also lack quality infrastructure and we are facing problems in running smooth classes, conducting practicals and research work. We are facing great difficulties. We have more than 15 research projects sanctioned by the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR) but we do not have infrastructure and faculties to complete the projects.”

Agriculture University, Jodhpur, a state institution, is also struggling. Pradeep Pagaria, director of the directorate of education at AUJ said that the university has “less resources and funds” to meet all its expenses. “However, we are trying our best to meet all the infrastructure needs of students. We are constantly equipping our labs with new and modern agriculture technologies and tools,” he said.

AUJ has a permanent academic building but its library is at a temporary facility at the Agricultural Research Station, Mandor. Its seven colleges have their own libraries.

Then, MHU Karnal is split into two. It is teaching its BSc (Hons) horticulture students of all four years at Anjanthali, a village in Nilokheri Tehsil in Karnal district of Haryana. The university built labs, offices, teaching blocks and hostels at the village. The first batch of BSc students graduate this year. Its PG and PhD programmes, however, are run from the Haryana Agriculture University (HAU), Hisar.

In November, MHU was allotted 65 acres in Karnal city for administrative, academic and residential blocks. But with this, 45 acres developed in Anjanthali have been transferred to HAU Regional Station, Uchani; the remaining 73 acres will be used by MHU for a research and farmer training centre, according to The Tribune.

Courses and admissions

While RLBCAU admits its UG students through CUET-UG conducted by National Testing Agency (NTA) on behalf of ICAR, others do it on the basis of marks obtained by students in their respective entrance examinations. However, most of them are admitting students in PG courses through one exam – All India Entrance Examination in Agriculture-Postgraduate (AIEEA-PG) – conducted by the NTA on behalf of ICAR.

That said, 10 seats of MSc (Agriculture) Molecular Biology and Biotechnology is filled on the basis of the Graduate Aptitude Test – Biotechnology (GAT-B) scores and two seats of MTech Agriculture (Soil and Water Conservation) are filled through Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) scores.

Admission to UG, PG and PhD programmes at AUJ is through Rajasthan Joint Entrance Test (Rajasthan JET), Pre-PG test and PhD entrance examinations, respectively, conducted by one of the state agricultural universities of Rajasthan. AUJ offers four UG programmes, three PG, one PhD and one diploma.

Admission to all UG courses at all the three new agriculture universities in Telangana is based on ranks in the Telangana State Engineering Agricultural and Medical Common Entrance Test (EAMCET). Admission to its PG courses is through AIEEA-PG.

BASU Patna offers three UG and 19 PG programmes, plus PhD in 11 fields. Admission to B.F.Sc. is based on Bihar Combined Entrance Competitive Examination (BCECE); for B.Tech Dairy Technology, it is the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Main; and for BSc in Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry (B.VSc. and AH), it is the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET). As in most other cases, PG and PhD admission is through ICAR-AIEEA.

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MHU Karnal offers one UG and three PG and PhD courses. Admission to all courses are based on the Common Entrance Test (CET) conducted by the Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University (CCSHAU), Hisar.

MGUHF has eight constituent colleges offering two UG and two PG programmes for which it conducts its own common entrance tests (CET).

Agriculture university: Placements

While official websites of all new agriculture universities claim to have placement cells, providing jobs is proving to be a struggle. “Placement of students depends upon students' interest. Our students are also placed in companies related to agriculture fields, every year. They also secure government jobs through competitive exams,” said Pagaria of AUJ.

After completing his PhD from PJTSAU in 2021, G Babitharaj Goud is now working as an assistant professor at a Hyderabad-based university. “Except for placements, there is no problem in PJTSAU. Most of the companies hire graduates for their management roles. When I was studying, instead of visiting our colleges, companies went to nearby management colleges offering MBA,” he said.

A PG student of SKLTSHU said only a handful of companies visit the campus for placement. “Last year, just 20 students were given jobs by different companies. The maximum salaries offered to them was Rs 35,000 per month. The placements are just nominal here.”

Khare of MGUHF, Durg, said job placements are “difficult” but added, “We are trying our best to provide jobs to our students. Last year, some of our students were placed in Meteorological Centre Raipur and other private companies”.

Harsh Sharma, a UG student at RLBCAU said that processing industries, packaging companies come for placements at the university.

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New agri courses

Except AUJ, most central universities are less than a decade old. However, they are adding new courses every year.

Khare said from the 2024-25 academic year, MGUHF is launching BTech and MTech in food technology and food nutrition, MSc in forest product and utilisation, MSc in post harvest technology, MBA and PhD in agribusiness management. Admission to all courses will be based on the university’s CET.

Rajput said that RLBCAU started BSc (Hons) Natural Farming with 10 seats under the College of Agriculture. “This year, we have launched five certificate courses with three-to-six-months duration,” he said.

AUJ has launched a BTech and an MBA programme. “We launched a BTech course in dairy technology and MBA in agri-business management last year,” said Pagaria.

“Admission to MBA is based on Common Admission Test (CAT), CMAT: Common Management Admission Test (CMAT) and Management Aptitude Test (MAT) scores. We are starting MSc in organic farming from this year and admission will be based on JET scores," he added.