Arvind University to Start Holistic Courses in Agriculture for Farmers

The nation’s sole private open agriculture university began functioning in January 2013, has taken up the noble cause of educating farmers of all ages where the qualification will also be no restriction.

"Our syllabus and curriculm are entirely different than other universities and are innovative. We are conducting classes on out-demonstration farms near here in Katol and the response is good," chancellor of Arvind Agricultural (Open and Virtual) University, Dr Mukund Gaikwad said.

Arvind Agriculture Open and Virtual University intend on using high technology involving experts of various agro-products in the world for sharing their experience and teaching farmers directly here in virtual classrooms, he said.

The chancellor said it will collaborate with agriculture universities excelling in their fields, to arrange knowledge transfer and field trips.

He also, added that marketing is one of the grass root bottlenecks in agriculture and will be addressed by the university. "This summer we have started with exporting 700 tonnes of mango from Western Maharashtra. Now, plans are afoot to help Vidarbha farmers by exporting vegetables from this region. As a pilot project we have been growing vegetables at our demonstration field at Wadvihira in Katol (Nagpur rural). We plan to export 500 tonnes of vegetables," he said.

"Farmers of Vidarbha need to take up innovative measures like diversifying to vegetables and pulses besides cash crops like cotton and soyabean to increase their income. Only if they do this, the economic distress that has led to the suicide crisis can be resolved," Gaikwad said.

Arvind University aims at setting an example in farm education by offering custom made courses and that is the reason 50 courses has been chalked out, ranging from a daylong workshop to a four year ratna with age no bar or qualification, he added.

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