RAJENDRA AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY, PUSA, SAMASTIPUR , BIHAR

Bihar Agriculture College, Sabour is one of the six Agricultural Colleges in India established during 1906 and has been a premier institution of Agricultural Research in the country. It was established on Aug. 1908 as Bengal Provincial College. Bihar Agriculture College, Sabour started education programme in Agriculture during 1 910 and continued with slow pace till 1923. On January 10, 1944 first Principal Dr. J.S. Patel started B.Sc. (Ag) degree programme. The Post-graduate education started in the year 1955 in Horticulture, Agronomy, Plant Pathology, Entomology and Extension Education disciplines.

The B.Sc. (Ag.) degree programme initially was affiliated to Patna University followed by Bihar University and Bhagalpur University. After inception of the Rajendra Agricultural University on December 3, 1970 with Headquarters at Pusa this college became a constituent of RAU. The degree programme was extended from 3 year duration to 4 year duration.

The college is presently engaged in teaching of B.Sc. (Ag.), M.Sc. (Ag.) and Ph.D. courses in Horticulture (Pomology) as well as in Olericulture. In addition to teaching, research, extension, seed & graft gootiee production, consultancy, training and research information service and help line services are being offered.

OBJECTIVES

The Bihar Agricultural College has got the following mission oriented objectives:

To impart education in different branches of agriculture.
To undertake strategic and applied research for developing technologies to enhance productivity, quality and value addition of agricultural produce.
To disseminate the scientific information's to the farmers, youth and women.
To plan, organize and conduct On Campus and Off Campus training programmes to develop human resource capability in the field of agriculture.
To help the state government in supplying breeder seeds, graft gooties forwards production and multiplication of foundation and certified planting materials.
To provide consultancy services and expertise in agricultural field, NGO's, industries and other.
To serve as a repository of scientific information in various aspects of agriculture of Zone III A by collaborating the relevant agencies for all round development of agriculture in Bihar State.

ACHIEVEMENTS

For the first time here the Regional Research Institute was completely integrated with the College quite before the establishment of the Agricultural University.
Organized research on Rice was started here for the first time in the country.
Pioneer work in Horticulture in the country has to the credit of this college.
The systematic Soil Survey work on a large scale was also initiated at Sabour pretty earlier as compared to other places.
Post-graduate teaching and research in Extension Education was introduced by this college.

FACULTY
The college has 12 well established departments with trained faculty members.
Click Here to view the faculty list

EDUCATION

Intake capacity of students in B.Sc. (Ag.) degree programmed is 50, which is proposed to be 60 per year. Presently teaching in B.Sc. (Ag.), M.Sc. (Ag.) and Ph.D. courses in Horticulture are in vogue. Admission to UG Programme is held on merit basis through Bihar Combined Entrance Competitive Examination (B.C.E.C.E.) and ICAR Combined test. Admission to PG and Ph. D degrees are held on merit basis through University level Entrance Examination tests. The minimum eligibility requirement for admission to the

degree programme is I.Sc. i.e. 10+2 or equivalent examination with Physics, Chemistry and Biology combination or Physics, Chemistry & Mathematics combinations Students having passed I.Sc. examination with Physics, Chemistry & Mathematics or Biology are eligible for admission to B.Sc. (Ag.) programme. Different courses related to the faculty of agriculture under B.Sc. (Ag.), M.Sc. (Ag.) and Ph.D degree programmes are being imparted at this college.

All the classrooms are located in the main building of the College with laboratories in each department. The practical classes are held both in farm and laboratories as per course requirement. The laboratories are well equipped with different types of gazettes, instruments & chemicals etc. for conducting practical Classes of students. In addition to this every department has a seminar-cum-classroom. Some seminar rooms are equipped with modern projection equipments.

RESEARCH

Based on the needs of the State/Farmers under agriculture, the research programmes are formulated, the results of which are finally made available as recommendations such as developing new variety, agro-techniques / management etc.

The research fundings are made either by Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Govt. of India or State plan as detailed here under.

A.) On going Research Projects

AICRP on Vegetable, Subtropical fruits, Rice, Wheat and Cropping system

B.) ICAR Adhoc Research Projects

(i) Developing Cropping System for enhanced production of quality fodder in flood prone area of Gangetic basin of Bihar.

(ii) Cataloging of Mango cultivars of Eastern India

C.) State Plan Projects

(i) Detailed Soil Survey of Bhagalpur District

(ii) Macromode Project of preparation of 25 years perspective plan on land use Planning of Bihar.

(iii) Macromode Project on fruit under Horticulture

EXTENSION ACTIVITIES

1. Farm Advisory Service:

2. On Campus and Off Campus Training

Skill Oriented Training for the farmers
Training of Extension personnel
Entrepreneurship Training of unemployed women and rural youth
Frontline Demonstration
General Demonstration
Organizing Kisan Mela
Kisan Mela/ Kisan Gosthi/ field visits
Diagnostic Team Visit
Seeds production of Crops and planting material of important tropical fruits.

AGROMET SERVICE

The project commenced from the 1996-97 under the aegis of NCMRWF of Department of Science & Technology, Govt. of India to provide weekly weather forecasts for the benefit of farmers within 100 km radius. Since the inception of the project so far, a total of 574 weather forecast agro-advisory bulletin for 1882 days have been circulated by this center to serve the farming communities and other concerned agencies.

LIBRARY

Ther college has a well established library with over 24,835 books and 8755 journals as book volumes and subcribes to 38 foreign journals and 32 Indian journals. The library is enriched with 3 rare books, Viz. Hortus Malabaricus (12 Vol.), Museum Restrcum et. Commercial (6 Vols) and Plants of Coast of Coromandal (3 Vols). Recently CDROM databases of references viz. Agris, Agricola, Capsac, Crop CD and Hort CD have been helping the research community of the college to a great extent. The library is in the process of complete automation.