A proposal was mooted for establishment of Agriculture University for residual Andhyra Pradesh in Kurnool district considering the infrastructure available and all other strong points in its favour.
K.C. Kalkura, socialite, made a formal representation to the Governor to strongly build a case in favour of agriculture university at Kurnool. The present agriculture university located in Hyderabad with nine teaching campuses, 13 colleges, 7 polytechnics, 67 research centres, 12 Krishi Vignana Kendras and 22 technology transfer centres was going to be divided vertically along with the State.
The places under consideration for location of headquarters of the Agriculture University are Bapatla, Tirupathi and Kurnool. The argument is that of the three, Kurnool is more suitable with a vast stretch of land under is control and a variety of crops.
At Bapatla, tobacco research was the only activity and only a few crops could be grown. Also, the place is isolated and prone to frequent cyclones.
In the case of Tirupati, work would be hampered by pilgrim rush and overcrowded atmosphere.
Dr. Ravindranath, who invented the popular Narasimha cotton variety, told The Hindu that more than 20 crops were grown in Kurnool district with equal emphasis on irrigated crops and dry land farming.
‘Land not a problem’According to him, 117 acres land was available at Regional Agriculture Research Station at Nandyal, 400 acres at Mahanandi Agriculture College and 1500 acres Tangedancha farm. The entire land could be used for establishing the university and the research stations.
Dry land farming is expected to play a major role in the coming years for which Anantapur and Kurnool are the most suitable. Irrigated dry crops like cotton, maize, chilli, groundnut and paddy are very popular in Kurnool district.
