365Telugu.com online news,August 31st,2024:The Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University established in 2014 is celebrating its 10thFoundation Day on 3rd September, 2024 at the University Auditorium, Rajendra nagar.
The event is slated to begin at 11 AM and Prof. B. J. Rao, Hon’ble Vice Chancellor, University of Hyderabad will be the Chief Guest of the function and will deliver the Professor Jayashankar Commemorative Address on “Good Quality Education is the Solution”. Hon’ble Vice Chancellor of PJTSAU M. Raghunandan Rao, IAS will preside over the function.
The progress of the institute in the last ten years is tracked, the accomplishments by the University in the last ten years has catapulted it to the higher echelons of National Agricultural Research and Education System (NARES) of India and has positioned itself at the top among the premier Higher Education Institutes as ranked by various agencies including ICAR (6th rank in 2017), NIRF (37th rank in 2024 among 145 Universities in Agriculture and Allied Sector) and was suitably bestowed with plethora of awards. Commitment to quality in all work spheres was evidenced by the ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 17025:2017 certification attained by the University.
In the decade that passed, priority was given to render farm education affordable and accessible in all parts of the State by establishing new Colleges in different faculties of the University. By establishing five new Agricultural and one Food Science and Technology colleges, the Undergraduate intake has been enhanced to 1360.
All the UG, PG and Ph.D. programmes in the colleges and the University have been accredited by ICAR with ‘A’ grade apart from being recognised by the UGC. Efforts were fructified in installing State-of – Art academic infrastructure in constituent campuses to nurture young Graduate and seasoned Post graduate talent.
A course on design thinking for entrepreneurship was introduced to the final year students to inculcate entrepreneurial culture among the students which was first of its kind in Agricultural Universities of the country.
In order to encourage International exposure and train the students of the University in the identified best laboratories of the world.The Government of Telangana for the first time has instituted the scheme to grant Overseas Fellowship to the students of PJTSAU to pursue Master’s programmes in Agriculture at Auburn University, Alabama State, USA.
The State of Art, Central Instrumentation Cell established with a budget outlay of Rs.5.5 cr. housing sophisticated instruments for PG research was aimed to provide scholars an opportunity to conduct quality research.
By far the most progressive initiative was the institution of dedicated research grants to the tune of Rs 40,000 per PG and Rs 1 lakh per Ph.D. student to enable interdisciplinary and problem solving research since 2019. In addition, currently certain industries are also extending fellowships to the research scholars.
Skilling the rural youth excelling in Secondary School Education was accomplished by adding 4 new Polytechnics offering Diploma in Agriculture, Agricultural Engineering and Seed Technology taking the total number to 12.
Digitization of the latest knowledge repository and offering it to the beneficiaries was achieved through modernisation of Knowledge Management Centres.
To sustain high Standards of instructional curriculum, University has embarked upon improving the faculty student ratio by undertaking recruitment of entry level teachers to shoot the figure to an unprecedented 1:7, an all-time best. Such initiatives have resulted in >13,000 students passing out from the portals of constituent colleges of the University.
On Research front, focused efforts were launched to develop Agro technologies that are cost effective, resilient, nutrient and resource efficient so as to reduce the production costs significantly. The research programmes were carried out at 15 research stations including 27 AICRP schemes located in three agro-climatic zones of the state. New research stations / schemes were added at Tornala, Jagtial and Adilabad in crops like Maize, Sunflower, Groundnut and Mustard.
Presently the University holds the rare distinction of developing 67 varieties/hybrids in mandate crops (Rice-29, maize-3, sorghum-6, Pulses-11, Oilseeds – 5, soybean-2, cotton-1, Millets-2 and fodder-8) in a very short period of ten years. Many of these cultivars have established Pan India presence by sheer performance and have gained immense patronage by farmers across ecosystems.
Rice variety Telangana Sona was the torchbearer for the success journey of the University. The motto of saving precious irrigation water was achieved through cultivation of this variety realising conservation of ~11 tmc water for every one lakh acres.
The geographical spread of the developed varieties was ensured by generating large quantities, of best quality seed by establishing fool proof traceability system. So far 24,000 q of Breeder seed and 1, 03,000 quintals of other classes seed were produced, thus projecting Telangana as ‘Seed Bowl’ of the Nation. Today the State is fulfilling 65% of the country’s seed requirement. Annual “Seed Mela” conducted in the University campuses reflects the profound contribution on this front.
Besides this, the University has developed and validated nearly 128 Agro-technologies in areas likeNatural Resource Management (91), Farm Mechanization (12), and Crop Protection (25).
Advances registered in various field sciences were carefully and profitably extended to post production arena and cold pressed extraction of oil from safflower, sesame, ground nut organic red gram dal and turmeric powder of best quality were successfully piloted and scaled up under FSSAI licence to turn into self-sufficient, profit making ventures.
Further, the University also holds the distinction of being first institute in the country to be cleared by the DGCA to carry out research in drone applications in agriculture by establishing a Drone Academy,besides undertaking capacity building of rural youth and other partners in the area.
Another creditable achievement of the University has been the partnership with Farmers Producer Organizations. Famous “Tandur Red Gram” of Telangana was awarded Geographical Registration Tag (GI) in favour of Yalal Farmers Producers Company Limited, an FPO. The University has submitted 11 Patent Applications, of which, 4 Patents have been published and equal number have been granted Patent certificates.
PJTSAU has launched first of its kind incubation facility under Section-8, the AgHub, built in a Hub and Spoke model with rural spokes at Jagtial, Warangal and Vikarabad. Presently about 95 prospective Start up ventures are hand held at the incubation hub.
Front Line Extension machinery of the University formulates its activities through eight KVK’s and nine DAATTC’s.Two new KVK’s were established at Bellampalli and Bhadradri Kothagudem to augment the Technology Assessment and Refinement efforts.
As a part of demonstration of University generated technologies in 16,593 locations, 10,224 on farm trials and 7664 Front Line Demonstrations were organised. KVK’s and DAATTC’s conducted 6558 varietal minikit trials across the state.
PJTSAU is also the nodal centre (EEI) for South India to undertake capacity building programmes for Extension personnel by conducting 556 trainings to 14,267 extension personnel. Novel initiatives like Telangana Yuva Rytu Sagubadi – a certificate course for 330 farmers and training 506 MAO’s as Agronomists was very successful. University YouTube channel with 548 videos uploaded, 89,200 subscribers and 79,12,386 views became most viewed channel.
Further, Annapurna Krishi Prasaraseva / Kisan Sarathi – a mobile based advisory service has been developed for issuing timely suggestions to farmers, thus benefiting 2.78 lakh farmers so far.
A digital innovation by PJTSAU Electronic Wing and Dept. Of Agriculture Telangana to solve farmers field problems in real time – Rythunestam live interaction program of farmers, Department of agriculture officials and Scientists connecting 556 Rythuvedikas of Telangana state was inaugurated by Hon’ble CM Revanth Reddy on 6th March, 2024, so far has benefited 1.3 lakh farmers.
In view of such outstanding initiatives, the University has become the seat of scientific interactions and exchange of ideas among agricultural fraternity of the country and could successfully host more than 50 seminars/conferences of national and international significance and entered into 7 International and 56 National MoUs with organisations of repute for joint collaborative R&D activities.