Bansilal Amrutlal College of Agriculture established in 1947 with the tireless efforts by Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel-the Ironman of India, learned Shree Kanaiyalal Maneklal Munshi and Agricultural scientist Dr. M. D. Patel since its inception, has been significantly contributing to agricultural development and research as well in the state of Gujarat and nation at large. A huge workforce of trained teachers and scientists has been working for the tremendous activities in education, research and extension education. Every year approximately, 140 students at undergraduate and 120 at postgraduate level enroll in agricultural studies from different parts of India and abroad. After constitution of Anand Agricultural University (2004) around 2500 graduates and post graduates and since establishment of the institute (1947) around 8500 graduates and post graduates students have earned their degree from this institute and most of them have been working in the various fields of agriculture with reputed agencies of India and abroad. Since years, higher efficiency, expertise in the subject and leadership guts-these three have become the core identity of the students of the institute. Use of latest technology in education, research and extension has always been encouraged here. Due to this, students from the institute really have sound knowledge along with the latest updates in the field of agriculture. There are 18 departments working on crop-breeding, crop-production, crop-protection and Social Sciences and thereby carrying out various activities of education, research and extension education.

The Mandate...

• To contribute to the advancement of knowledge in agricultural science and technology and to solve the environmental problems to make human living more comfortable.

• To meet the need of agricultural manpower for social, professional and economic development through teaching, research, practical training and extension education.

• To promote learning in an environment conductive to free -thinking  and innovation to cultivate the skills, attitudes and habits of life-long learning, so as to be well prepared to adapt to a rapidly evolving society

• To cater the need for knowledge workers in our rural society and focus on lifetime employability rather than lifetime employment.

RESEARCH:

Taking the queries and problems of farmer community into account, different departments of the institute carry out varieties of experiments and there by prepare recommendations which are useful to the farmers and scientists. To make the students and farmers aware, an educational museum has been developed where different types of seed and compost, samples of agricultural tools, pest control and weed control are displayed. Apart from this a well-planned crop-cafeteria is also available where more than 150 types of crops are being planted according to the seasons. Long-term experiments of weed and weed control are also being carried out and by these experiments the impact of residue of weed-control chemicals and its residual impact on the next crop are also being studied. Under the conservation agriculture, effects on crop-production, soil-fertility and microbiologists are being observed with and without weed-control chemicals.

Weather based agricultural advisory service is being provided to the farmers of Middle Gujarat on every Tuesday and Friday with the help of different media like email, message, website, display system, newspapers, television, radio etc. Under the projects affiliated to ISRO, 43 automated weather forecast centers are established by ISRO at Agricultural Research Centers in Gujarat and every two hour, the statistics of different weather parameters are made available on the website. Some useful microbial products like organic fertilizers, bioagents and biological dialyzers are also developed. Around 52 recommendations regarding the use of organic fertilizer are made by various departments of the college. Department of Microbiology has been awarded many prestigious awards at state and national level. With public partnership commercialization, four MoU are signed with the companies producing agricultural products using the technology developed for liquid organic fertilizer. With a view to commercialize the technology developed for organic fertilizer, four agreements are signed with the companies producing agricultural products and with public partnership; it has been made available in the market for a wide use by the farmer community. Under ‘Rashtriya Krushi Vikaas Yojna’, with the help of Govt. of India and Govt. of Gujarat, technology for fungus caused soil-diseases like root rot, blight, damping off have been developed. Latest software like SPSS, , SAS, Python, RARCH, GARCH, MINITAB etc. are being used for analysis in various post graduate and departmental research works.

EXTENSION:

Lectures, training programs and demonstrations regarding modern techniques of agriculture are organized by all the departments of the college throughout the year. Demonstrations and trainings are also organized for promoting organic farming. Through such training programs farmers get trained for weed control and weed management, organic farming and use of pest controls. Awareness of side effects of pest controls on the soil-fertility and quality crop production are also created among the farmers. Agriculture related queries and problems of the farmers are also discussed and solved in such programs. Farmer community get the guidance of scientists during Krushi Mahotsav and materials on various agricultural issues and developments are also distributed among farmers. Horticulture department has provided 33 recommendations for fruit crops, 22 for vegetable crops, 9 for flowers and one for trees which would be very helpful to the farmers and scientists as well. Horticultural crops have always been an incredible element of nation’s economy. Gardener’s training center every year organizes training for many gardeners in Middle Gujarat and through this youth can get better employment. Lectures and training programs are organized to train the farmers on how to use modern techniques like Green House, Net House, Drip Irrigation etc. for enhanced production with more benefit.

Training programs with latest technology used in agriculture are organized by the scientists in Agril-Economic Dept. under the activities of ‘Vishwa Vyaapaar Sangathan’. Such training programs help the farmers to avail more benefits through farming by quality production of the crops by using the latest techniques in farming. Seed Science and Technology department organizes training related to seed production, seed processing and selling for the seed-producers and merchants. In modern agriculture testing of soil and water plays a crucial role. Department of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry organizes training programs for water and soil tests and spreads the awareness amongst farming community and it also enables youth for better employability.

Click Here to read information in Gujarati