Panaji — A full-fledged agriculture college offering degree courses to students desiring to make a career in the agrarian field will soon become a reality in Goa.

The Salesian Society of Goa (Don Bosco) is making all efforts to set up such an institution at its Don Bosco Agro Ed Complex, in Sulcorna village in Quepem taluka.

The college is expected to have separate hostels for girls and boys, sports facilities, and workshops and agricultural machinery on its sprawling campus of 810 acres of land, out of which nearly 260 acres are brought under cultivation of crops like sugarcane, banana, coconut, oil palm, and cashew among other crops.

The government has recently appointed the director of agriculture as a member of the advisory committee of the Don Bosco College of Agriculture, reported goacom.

Informing about the new institution, Fr Allwyn D’Souza of the Salesian Society of Goa said that all efforts are on to obtain an affiliation for the college from the Goa University.

“At present, we are in the process of completing various formalities for the college, and hence cannot make any official statement in this regard,” he added.

Goa University registrar Dr Vijayendra Kamat told this daily that the Salesian Society of Goa has recently applied for the affiliation of the Goa University, for its proposed agriculture college.

“They have lately received NOC from the government for the institution, and still need permission from the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR),” he added, pointing out that the affiliation inquiry committee of the Goa University is looking into the application.

Dr Kamat also said the board of studies of the Goa University has finalised the syllabus for the courses to be taught at the proposed institution. “Furthermore, the executive council and the academic council of the university will also discuss the application before any related decision is taken,” he concluded.

The institution will adopt the national syllabus of the ICAR, for studies leading up to B Sc (agriculture) with local content as admissible under the ICAR system. The B Sc (Agri) programme will have recognition of the ICAR through Goa University, on the lines of the courses at Benaras Hindu University and Aligarh Muslim University with the concurrence of the government of Goa, desirable to make the course valid across India for higher education and employment.

The structure of the institution will include main building including classrooms, laboratories, staff rooms and administration office, besides the hostels.

The mission towards setting up the institution is to develop trained graduates and postgraduates within Goa itself, train youngsters and farmers in latest agricultural practices, move towards efficiency in farming through mechanisation of agriculture, transfer modern technology to rural areas, enhance research and development in agriculture along the Konkan region with special focus on South Goa, and to make a shift towards organic farming.

The vision behind establishing the agriculture college is to focus on youth empowerment through knowledge and skills, by exploring and testing new techniques in agriculture, horticulture, floriculture and animal husbandry.

The institution will also explore the possibility of marketing agricultural products and services. Furthermore, the institution will become a resource centre to everything related to farm and off farm activities for all local farmers.

Furthermore, the institution will counsel youth into getting back to agriculture as a livelihood choice, as well as women’s groups to take up specific crops right from its cultivation and harvesting to production and marketing, which can transform the agricultural scenario in Goa, from the present ‘hand-to-mouth’ existence to a commercially viable and profitable proposition.

The long-term plans of the agricultural college includes development of the institution into a full-fledged college, and offer ancillary courses up to Masters and Ph D level, engage the staff in capacity building through various short-term and long-term training programmes for those not desiring or who cannot afford studying up to graduation level, purchase equipments at subsidised rates in collaboration with various government departments which will be lent to poor local farmers, promotion of institutions such as self-help groups, co-operatives, farmers clubs and so on, maintain documentation of new practices in agricultural methods as well as the use of technology to utilise services provided by experts from various government departments and other resource institutions, and increase the number of graduation and post-graduation programmes.