The College of Agriculture, at Bheemarayanagudi,shall complete nearing two Decade of its existence, situated in the North-Eastern dry zone of Karnataka located between 16 ⁰ 43‘ N and   76 ⁰ 51‘ E longitude at an elevation of 411.75  meters above MSL characterized by dry climate with an average annual rainfall of 774.1 mm. It lies in the heart of Upper Krishna Irrigation Project, a prestigious and largest irrigation command of the country with projected irrigation potentiality of 10 lakh ha. The project itself is unique in its vastness and soils. Majority soils belong to deep (Vertisols– 59 %), shallow and medium deep black soils (constitutes 27 %) with poor drainability warranting careful and scientific irrigation water management for long term agricultural sustainability.

The Butterfly Building of Karnataka Satellite Google Earth Picture of College of Bheemarayanagudi& its associated  Blocks used for UG Learning/PG Research & Agricultural Research Station

Details of its Location

• Historical Background:

‘KrishitoNasthiDurbhiksham’, the eternal truth of survival emphasizes the importance of agriculture to civilized man and hence, since Vedic age agriculture is considered as an important vocation. It is believed that in India, agricultural education started as one of the 18 arts subjects in Nalanda and TakshilaUniversities. However, formal imparting of agricultural education was started in the country with the establishment of Agricultural Colleges in 1906. Ever since the beginning of twentieth century the science of agriculture has evolved itself as one of the prominent biological sciences. In recent years, agriculture is practiced on commercial scale and calls for professionalism. The skills of management are now being very much incorporated in agricultural education to reorient itself to the changing dimensions of agribusiness and finding solutions to problems of different stakeholders including farmers. Agriculture being a primary sector contributing either directly or indirectly for economic development, needs to be strengthened with quality human resource capable of handling the farm–business, research and development.  Further, to cater ever increasing challenges from the burgeoning population many new agricultural research stations and agricultural colleges were started by the state governments time to time in different agro ecological regions of the country.

North-eastern dry region in Karnataka is educationally, socio-economically and agriculturally backward and needs concerted effort for its up-liftment on all fronts. Therefore, the visionaries paved way for the development by undertaking Upper Krishna Irrigation Project during sixties, one of the major projects in Karnataka and the most prestigious multipurpose project. The project became operational during eighties and for the first time irrigation water was released from Narayanpur Dam during 1984. Keeping in view of implementation of the irrigation project, the University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore established an Agricultural Research Station at Bheemarayanagudi during 1981 under National Agricultural Research Project Phase I so as to enable farmers to acquaint themselves to the changing agricultural scenario by developing technologies and finding solutions to the location specific problems arising out of release of water. Subsequently, to look in to the drainage needs, an international funded Indo – Dutch Network Operational Research Project on Drainage and Water Management for Salinity Control in Canal Commands was started at this place during 1996 which has done exemplary work. However, these efforts were not enough to meet the immediate needs particularly the agricultural education for the youth. Therefore, College of Agriculture at Bheemarayanagudi, Yadgir district, now a constituent college of University of Agricultural Sciences, Raichur came into being during 2001(Order No. AHD 39 AUM 99, Dated 01.10.1999, Bangalore) under the erstwhile University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad. The College is located on the state highway SH 19 connecting Bidar–Srirangapatanam and is about 5 km from Shahapur town, known for its ‘Sleeping Budda’ hillock view. The mandate of the institution is “to prepare the human resources for teaching, research and extension activities” and the mission statement of the college is “to develop human resource in agriculture through teaching and by providing hands on experience on latest technologies, capacity building for future, handling independent research projects and efficient dissemination of research findings to the farming community of Kalyan-Karnataka, in particular and country as a whole”.

The nearest Railway stations are Yadgir (42 km away) and Gulbarga (Kalaburagi) (72 km away) with an international Airport situated 280 km South East(Rajiv Gandhi International Air Port, Hyderabad). In fact, the infrastructure of the Agricultural Research Station, Bheemarayanagudi formed the framework of this College. The Agriculture Extension Education Centre was established to strengthen farmer- extension worker linkage at Bheemarayanagudi during 2002 to hasten transfer of technology to the farming community. Now, this region has made a mark in the country as this area is considered as pulse bowl of the state and the country with considerable area under rice-rice, Bt cotton and irrigated chilly. Today, the College stands tall in the hearts of farming community for its concerted efforts.

1. Faculties (Name, Specialization, Contact number) and Office Staff:

The College of Agriculture, Bheemarayanagudi, has 14 departmentsviz. Agricultural Economics, Agricultural Engineering, Agricultural Entomology, Agricultural Extension Education, Agricultural Microbiology, Agronomy, Crop Physiology, Genetics and Plant Breeding, Farm Forestry, Horticulture, Plant Pathology, Seed Science and Technology, Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry and Animal & Fishery Science.  The departments are re-organized into four broad based Divisions namely Natural Resource Management, Plant sciences, Plant protection and Social Sciences with separate mandates to pursue. Further, the intake capacity of the B.Sc. (Agri.) has increased from 25 in the year 2001 to the present level of 80 during 2019-20 due to increased demand and strengthening of faculty. The chronological institutional growth is listed as under.

The college is headed by Dean (Agri) who is assisted by professors and other staff of different disciplines on the matters of academic, administration, research andextension (RAWE).

Table 1.Significant Chronological Events of Historical Development of Campus /

College of Agriculture, Bheemarayanagudi.

College offers four year professional degree programmeviz. B.Sc. (Hons.) Agriculture and a two year Diploma in Agriculture, in local language (Kannada).From the inception of the College of Agriculture, Bheemaryanagudi, the intake capacity has been increased from time to time. The students’ intake and turn out for B.Sc. (Agri.) programme since 2001-02 academic year has been presented in the Table 2a.

Table 2a.Intake capacity of UG Students, students admitted and students completed and student failed – could not complete degree

*  Students drop if they get different professional courses such as Medical, Ayurvedic or Engineering

** Students Fail to complete degree programme owe to health/family issues.

Table 2b.Intake capacity of Diploma Students, students admitted and students completed and student failed – could not complete Diploma Agri course

*  Students drop if they get different courses such as PUC, ITI, Personal grounds

The College of Agriculture, Bheemarayanagudi has the largest floor area compared to any other colleges in the state housing14 departments. Taking into consideration, the need for e- learning, the faculty is provided with computer and a modern computer laboratory for the benefit of students with broadband internet facility. All the class rooms have LCD facilities. Besides, the college and library are also provided with e-surveillance (CCTV) and college, hostels and the library are provided with Diesel Generators to meet the shortage of power.

At present, the V Deans Committee syllabus is under implementation. The hands on training programme/experiential learning programme are being implemented. The teaching faculties are well equipped with state of art equipment’s and laboratory instruments to provide effective learning. Further, several research projects funded by national and international agencies are in operation.

            College has a total of six classrooms covering two sections for 3 years B.Sc. Hons. (Agri.)course and two for offering Diploma courses; in total eight classrooms.  Each classroom can accommodate a maximum of 60 students.Class rooms of the college have been upgraded with interactive boards, audio and visual devises.  In addition, Video Conference facility has also been created.  One well equipped Conference Hall is also available with ICT facility which is used for conducting Conferences, Seminars etc. 

           College has 42 laboratories to cater the needs of conduct of practical’s for B.Sc. (Hons.) Agri. degree and also Diploma in Agriculture. Most laboratories have LCD facility. 

Hands on Training: Experiential Learning is a module specially designed to inculcate the confidence among students, hands on training is offered where a student shall register for two major modules and compulsory undergo three sub modules offered. 

Hands on training of handling bee by students as a sub module under Commercial Agriculture

STUDENT READYprogramme, as per IVth Deans Committee recommendations was more of learning but as per Vth Deans Committee recommendations profit sharing mechanism in addition to learning and has been implemented for the students since 2016-17, looking into its faculty strength, students were provided hands-on-training in four multi-disciplinary modules namely, Natural Resource Management, Crop Protection, Commercial Horticulture and Bio-inputs.However, as per Vth Deans committee recommendations, six modules viz. Organic productiontechnology, mushroom cultivation technology, commercial horticulture, food processing,  commercial sereculture, and soil, plant, water and seed testing have been offered.

Crop Production proramme for students (Crop Area Profit)

For the benefit of the students who are undergoing the course of Agronomy – Crop Production – earn while you learn scheme which is being operated where each student is allotted with 10 gunta land which he/she will cultivate and the produce produced will be sold in the market and profit is shared among the students.  Major operations are undertaken by the college. 

Library:College has a separate and well established Library which works from 9 am to 8 pm on all the working days.  It has a total of 15K books in addition it also has book banks with a total books specially, for SC/ST students. The library provides facilities such as Intranet i.e. information on agriculture, provision has been made to get links to full text journals available free in internet related to agricultural science, inter-library loan etc. Campus library has a novel service for the benefit of teachers and students, through the paper clippings from different daily newspapers concerned to agriculture and allied sciences, and Information Technology in Kannada / English.

Internet facility is being provided to all the staff members in the college.  Similarly Wi-Fi facility is provided in hostels (Boys & Girls) and Library for the benefit of all the students.

The College has two separate hostels for boys and girls with all the basic facilities such as gymnasium, recreation hall, and dining hall, and study room, solar water heating system, power generator and Wi-Fi facility. There is a RO plant in each hostel to provide pure water supply.

Sports and games

The College has an excellent ground for conducting field and track events.  The total dimension of the playground is approximately 3 ha.  In this play ground, a 400m track, a cricket pitch, an excellent concrete Basketball court, Volley ball, Kho-Kho, Kabaddi, Single beam and double beam Gymnastics and Table Tennis hall are provided. 

Participation of students in sports and games

• 
  Chetankumar IV year student has selected for National Team Cricket at Nepal during 2017-18
• Tanushree IV year students has selected Pencocksilat All India Level at Kalaburagi during 2019-20

Faculty members who received the awards/recognition for the last six years

National Service Scheme (NSS)

The National Service Scheme (NSS) unit was established since from the beginning in the College of Agriculture, Bheemarayanagudi with the objective of “making education more relevant to the present situation to meet the felt needs of the communities and supplement the education of College students by bringing them face to face with the community situation, encouraging the students volunteers to work along with the adults in rural areas, thereby developing their character, social consciousness and commitment, discipline and healthy and helpful attitudes towards the community, building up potential youth leaders by exploring the latent potential among the volunteers, emphasizing the dignity of labour and self-help and the need for combining physical work with intellectual pursuits, and encouraging youth to participate enthusiastically in the process of national development, and promote national integration through democratic living and cooperative action”.  In view of this, the NSS unit with its volunteers is quite active since beginning and is progressing well.

The employability of the Graduated students indicated that around 32 %  entered State Department and private sectoron an equal basis, banks around 13%, SAUs and national institutes around 13% and about 10% have become entrepreneurs.  The other academic achievements are listed below: secured highest number of JRF within the University and securing 29 JRF during 2018-19 with 6 students entering IARI is highest number from the state.   Students have excelled in cultural events; six consecutive years bagged first place in dance and sports events.

Dr. R. Lokesha

Dean (Agri.)

COLEGE OF AGRICULTURE

BHEEMARAYANGAUDI- 585 287

Shahapura (Tq.) & YADGIR DISTRICT

Telephone(08479) 222090

Fax: (08479) 222395

E-mail: deanacb@uasraichur.edu.in

            rlokesh@uasraichur.edu.in