PJTSAU makes a mark in farm education

The varsity is all set to celebrate the fourth foundation day today

Hyderabad: Standing second in the country after the well-established Punjab Agricultural University in the rankings of the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) and many more are a few achievements by the four-year-old Prof Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University (PJTSAU).

On the eve of fourth Foundation Day celebrations, scheduled on September 3, varsity Vice-Chancellor Dr V Praveen Rao said that the reforms initiated at the university on mission mode have been yielding results on various fronts, making the university make a mark in the agriculture education in the country.

He said besides standing second in the rankings among agricultural universities, the university has stood top among all the agricultural universities in south India. 

Similarly, taking into consideration all the allied departments, like extension and the like, the university stood sixth in the country, he added. 

Recollecting the starting of the journey of the university, Praveen Rao said it started functioning after the formation of the new State of Telangana in June 2014. 

In the first year when the ICAR had started ranking the agriculture universities in the country, PJTSAU had stood at 12 position. 

But, in the second year itself, it came to sixth. Similarly, in the MHRD's National Institutional Rankings Framework - 2018, the university stood at 82, which reflects the reforms initiated at the university yielding positive results. 

He said that varsity had started four new colleges to make the agriculture education accessible to all. 

Thus, the new colleges have been started at Nagarkurnool, Palem, Warangal and Sircilla. Similarly, a food science and technology college has been started at Rudruru. 

In addition to this, an Agriculture Research Center (ARC) at Tornala in Siddipet district has been started. Also, Krushi Vignana Kendras were started at Bellampally, Kothagudem and new buildings for agriculture engineering college at Kandi in Sanga Reddy, Food Science and Technology in Rudruru were constructed. 

Similarly, also agriculture polytechnic colleges were started, he said. 

The VC said besides improving infrastructure and basic amenities in colleges, the university has also started establishing virtual classrooms and modern labs, digital library, central examination buildings, central instrumentation cell, remote sensing and GIS labs to impart quality education to students and to enhance the efficiency of administrative staff.