HT Correspondent
JORHAT, April 1: Deputy director general, Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi, Dr RC Agrawal laid emphasis on higher agricultural education as it is important to sustain growth in agricultural productivity, promote research capabilities and skills to adapt to the current technologies and develop new ones.
Delivering the lecture on the 54th foundation day of Assam Agricultural University at the Dr MC Das Memorial Auditorium, AAU campus on Friday, Dr Agrawal called for increased enrolment of students to higher agricultural education, and to make India a global destination for higher agricultural education.
Stating that, in India 70 per cent of the population depended directly or indirectly on agriculture, Dr Agrawal added that the agricultural industry has become more sophisticated, technologically advanced and complex and that there is a need for brilliant employees.
He also spoke about the National Agriculture Higher Education Project (NAHEP) launched in 2017 under ICAR with financial aid from the World Bank which was aimed to improve the quality and provide more relevant higher agricultural education.
“NAHEP has played an important role in academic continuity. Upgradation in the infrastructure and facilities including digital infrastructure such as smart classrooms, adoption of the online examination system, development of e-learning modules, learnings through Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) are effectively enabling the ICAR AU system to keep up nationally and internationally,” he said.
Dr Agrawal said that through the National Education Policy 2020, the ICAR has developed plans to bring in a paradigm shift in education from teaching to learning, and of expanding the reach and opportunities for learning by going beyond the current initiatives of establishing new Central Agricultural Universities and upgrading the deemed universities as global destinations for agricultural studies.
Referring to the incubation centres as one of the most important facilities in Agricultural Universities with the support of Krishi Vigyan Kendras, he said that the emphasis of such centres in NEP 2020 would give a boost to open more incubation centres.
The incubation centres include food processing, ornamental fish breeding, seed production, milk processing for various products, etc.
Earlier the welcome address was delivered by AAU vice-chancellor Dr Bidyut Chandan Deka.
Dr Deka gave an overview of the University activities
