Two each on Vellayani, Vellanikkara campuses

The Kerala Agricultural University (KAU) will start four new departments of study.

The new departments are the Department of organic agriculture at the College of Agriculture (CoA), Vellayani; Department of remote sensing and Geographic Information System at the CoA, Vellayani, and the College of Forestry, Vellanikkara; and the Department of nanoscience and technology and the centre for Intellectual Property Rights and technology management at the College of Horticulture, Vellanikkara.

An academic council meeting here on Friday decided to form the new departments.

Vice Chancellor R. Chandra Babu said the new departments were intended to augment education and research in topics of contemporary relevance.

“While the department of organic agriculture will strengthen the technology backup for organic farming, an initiative gaining momentum in the State, the one for remote sensing and GIS will cater to the needs of students pursuing studies and research in natural resource management, forest ecosystem, physical geography, environment, regional development etc.,” he said.

“Nanotechnology being an emerging field with potential to revolutionise agriculture, a separate department for it will help explore and exploit the prospects in agricultural development and environment protection.

An in-depth knowledge of IP laws and their implications have become imperative to harvest the benefits and minimise negative impact in the agricultural sector.

The new centre for IPR and technology management under the faculty of agriculture has been formed in this context,” he said.

The 133rd meeting of the council held at Vellanikkara also decided to enhance the daily allowance of PG and PhD scholars, assign UG teaching responsibilities to willing PhD scholars, institute online examination system for UG, and expedite the process of establishing a full-fledged students grievance cell.

It has also been decided to conduct separate entrance tests for the seats reserved for agricultural assistants in the State departments for BSc (Hons) Agriculture.

Renaming

The issues of renaming the BSc course in cooperation, banking and management, renaming the College of Horticulture, and awarding equivalency to various courses have been referred to a subcommittee headed by the Dean (Faculty of Agriculture) for analysis.