Students and faculty of Kerala Agricultural University attended the International Agriculture and Rural Development (IARD) exchange programme at Cornell University, Ithaca, U.S. recently. It is for the second year in a row that the KAU students were selected for the programme at the Cornell University.
Three postgraduate students — Tomson K.S. (Agricultural Economics) from the College of Horticulture, Vellanikkara, Asha Elizabeth Jose (Agricultural Extension) and Ashwathi Vinod (Plant Pathology) from the College of Agriculture, Vellayani, — and a final-year undergraduate student, Vasim Fajl from the College of Agriculture, Padannakkad, attended the programme.
They were accompanied by Berin Pathrose, Assistant Professor, Department of Agricultural Entomology, College of Horticulture, Vellanikkara.
Visits labs
The team visited top-rated labs of the university, instructional farms and attended lectures and seminars by highly regarded professors in the field.
They also visited Cornell Centres of excellence such as the Institute of Biotechnology, Boyce Thompson Institute, Institute of Human Ecology, Department of Food Science, apple and grape germplasm collection, Food Venture Centre and Homer C. Thompson Vegetable research farm.
The key features of the research centres there were multidisciplinary research, close industry-academia linkage, utilisation of endowment funds and common facilities with high-end instruments, the team members said.
