The Kerala Agriculture University (KAU) will institute three golden jubilee post-doctoral fellowships in the field of agriculture, agricultural engineering and forestry. This was announced by P. Prasad, Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare and Pro-Chancellor of Kerala Agricultural University while presenting the Budget for the next financial year (FY 2022-23) before the general council at Vellanikkara here on Saturday.
The Budget outlines a revenue of ₹580.39 crore and an expenditure of ₹771.92 crore with a deficit of ₹191.53 crore. The Budget, approved by the general council, focusses on improvements in education, research and extension activities.
More funds have been earmarked for enhancing academic standards and improving the welfare of students. Research will be streamlined to address the emerging problems in the farming sector due to climate change.
Package of practices will be developed for crops based on the agro-ecological units. A new Centre of Excellence in Vegetables will be started at the university.
Research projects will be taken up on invasive alien species, genetic studies on medicinally important rice varieties and so on. More network projects will be started in the fields of gene-editing, fruit-processing and disease management of fruits and vegetables.
The university will also focus on carbon-neutral farming and, as a first step towards attaining this, all campuses of the university will become-carbon neutral by 2030.
An Agri Students Corps will be formed to augment the extension activities of the university in all panchayats. The KAU will also focus on research on nanotechnology and its application in agriculture to enhance efficiency of inputs and sustainability.
Farm clubs will be started in schools with the assistance of the KAU. Agro clinics and Farm Advisory Conclaves will be expanded to more areas.
In order to ensure the nutritional security of indigenous people, programmes will be taken up for vegetable cultivation, and steps will be taken to conserve traditional varieties of vegetables used by tribals in the State. A millet hub is another programme envisaged for enhancing the production of small-grain cereals.
Use of information technology for imparting training, new courses in hi-tech farming, farm journalism, massive open online courses on commercial floriculture and gardening are also proposed.
New proposals such as strengthening of library facilities, installing rain water harvesting structures, maintenance of heritage buildings at the College of Agriculture, Vellayani, and so on to enhance the infrastructural facilities on various campuses of the university have also found place in the Budget.
Revenue Minister K. Rajan, Vice Chancellor R. Chandrababu and other officers of the university were among those present.
