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KERALA AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY |
1.1 ORIGIN & GROWTH In 1955, the erstwhile Government
of Travancore-Cochin started an Agricultural College at Vellayani near
Thiruvananthapuram and a Veterinary College at Mannuthy near Thrissur
for imparting education in agricultural and veterinary sciences, affiliated
to the then University of Travancore.
Later these institutions were brought under the administrative
control of the Government and brought
under the Department of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry respectively. Post Graduate programmes leading to M.Sc.(Ag),
M.V.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees were started in 1961, 1962 and 1965, respectively.
The Randhawa Commission constituted by the ICAR, recommended
the establishment of four Agricultural Universities in the country.
As a sequel to the recommendations
, the first Agricultural University was established in 1960 at Pant
Nagar in U.P. Later, the report
of the second National Education Commission (1964-66) headed by Dr.
D.S. Kothari, the then Chairman of University Grants Commission,
stressed the need for establishing at least one Agricultural University
in each State. As a result,
the Kerala Agricultural University
(KAU) was established on 24th February 1971 by virtue
of the Act 33 of 1971 and started functioning from 1st February
1972. The Kerala Agricultural University is the 15th in the
series of the State Agricultural Universities of India. Sri. N. Chandrabhanu,
I.A.S., was the first Vice-Chancellor of the University. In accordance with the provisions of KAU Act of 1971, the
Agricultural College, Vellayani and Veterinary College, Mannuthy were
brought under the KAU. In addition,
21 agricultural and animal husbandry research stations were also transferred
to the University. Thus, at
the time of inception of the University, there were two colleges and
21 research stations. The University Campus
was formally inaugurated by the then Prime Minister of India Sri. Morarji
Desai on 25th July 1977 and the headquarters of the University
was shifted from Mannuthy to Vellanikkara in March 1978. Realising the importance of horticultural and plantation
crops, a College of Horticulture was started on October 28, 1972 at
the Mannuthy campus. This was later shifted to Vellanikkara in 1978. A College of Fisheries started functioning
from 1979 at Mannuthy and in
1983 it was shifted to Panangad, Kochi.
The Rural Institute at
Tavanur was taken over by the University in 1975 and was developed as
an Institute for Agricultural Technology (IAT). The IAT continued to
impart diploma programmes in two disciplines viz. Agricultural Sciences
and Agriculture and Rural Engineering.
This institute was upgraded to a full-fledged degree college
in Agricultural Engineering in 1985 and was renamed as Kelappaji College
of Agricultural Engineering and Technology. The College of Co-operation
and Banking started functioning from 1981 at Vellanikkara, in the College
of Horticulture. In 1985 the programme was delinked from the College
of Horticulture and started functioning as an independent college with
the name of College of Co-operation and Banking at the Communication
Centre, Mannuthy and in 1996 it was renamed as College of Co-operation,
Banking and Management. Later on, in August 1997 the College was shifted
to the Main Campus at Vellanikkara Considering the need for more manpower in the field of forest
management, the University started the College of Forestry in the year
1986 at the Main Campus. A new course in Dairy Science and Technology was started in 1993 under the Faculty of Veterinary
and Animal Sciences. The facilities available at the Dairy Technology
unit at the College of Veterinary and Animal Science are being utilized
for the conduct of classes for the students. The University decided to shift the College to the base-farm of
the Kerala Livestock Development Board at Kolahalamedu in Idukki district. The College, which is currently functioning
in the premises of Directorate of Extension at Mannuthy and will be shifted to the new campus as and when
the construction of the building is over. In addition to the Research Stations that were transferred
to the University, the University has started four Research Stations
of its own. At present, the
Kerala Agricultural University has a network of 36 big and small campuses through out the State with ten Colleges, six Regional Agricultural
Research Stations (RARS), 26 Research Stations, five Krishi Vigyan Kendras,
18 other units such as Central Library, Instructional Farms, Training
Service Units, Information-cum-Sales Centres, Radio Tracer laboratory,
Dairy Plant, Meat Plant, High School, Press, etc. spread all over the
State (Appendix I). The total
area of the University is 1985.64 hectares.
In 1972, when the University was established, there were 134 faculty positions,
which have expanded currently to 732 faculty positions. In the beginning
only two graduate programmes were offered. Now the University is offering seven graduate programmes, nine postgraduate
programmes in 43 disciplines and doctoral programme in 23 disciplines.
Apart from this, the University is offering two diploma courses
and several training programmes. UNIVERSITY’S MISSION
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The University
was established with the mandate of “providing human resources, skills
and technology required for the development of Kerala’s agriculture
including crop production, animal husbandry, forestry and fisheries through integrating
education and research by piloting their large scale field adoption
with supporting extension activities,
education, research and extension in these spheres of economic
endeavour”. |