In a progressive shift from traditional functioning, Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University (PJTSAU) has its focus centred on making the students, rolling out from its campuses, industry-ready by increasing their exposure to the field than limiting their learning process to classrooms, laboratories and libraries. Established on September 3, in 2014 with the division of Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University of combined Andhra Pradesh, the institution has introduced a series of reforms both on academic and research fronts by taking itself further closer to the farming community and to the State Government with participation in policy-making. “We have released 15 climate-smart and high-yielding varieties/hybrids in nine major crops and they are so successful that the farming community in most parts of Telangana, A.P. and adjoining areas in the neighbouring States have replaced previous varieties with the new ones since they have also reduced the crop period by about a month”, PJTSAU Vice-Chancellor V. Praveen Rao told The Hindu on Tuesday. The new varieties released by the university belong to paddy, greengram, blackgram, redgram, maize, castor, bajra, sesamum and a fodder crop. “Telangana Sona, Kunaram Sannalu and Bathukamma varieties of paddy have not only reduced the crop period by 30 to 35 days but have also increased the yield by 10%”, the Vice Chancellor said on the eve of the university’s first convocation slated for Wednesday.
Stating that they had entered into a memorandum of understanding with the International Rice Research Institute of Manila for transfer of technology (genes) for further increasing the yield of popular paddy varieties, Mr. Praveen Rao said the university was also working on alternate wetting and drying irrigation of paddy, aerobic rice, drum-seeded rice and drip irrigated rice to reduce utilisation of water for irrigation.
Water consumption
He explained that paddy cultivation consumes over 62% water utilised by the farming community and that 70% of it is wasted either with percolation or with drainage.
The university was also working on a project of providing market intelligence information to the State Government to forecast demand and price fluctuation in different markets for major crops cultivated in the State and help the farming community get a better price for their produce, he stated.
On the academic side, the Vice-Chancellor said the final (fourth) year students of B. Sc course would be given maximum field exposure by making them spend one crop season, about 24 weeks, in the field and made to learn managing one agricultural activity such as soil analysis, vermi-compost making, micro irrigation, seed production on their own. They are also made to learn about entrepreneurship, project report making, raising a crop and knowing work culture of the industry.
