2nd agricultural engg college in Bengaluru soon

The state will have its second agricultural engineering college on Gandhi Krishi Vignana Kendra (GKVK) campus in Bengaluru. The government has already issued a notification in this regard.

At present, an agricultural college is functioning from the GKVK campus and it would be upgraded as agricultural engineering college. The new college will get accreditation from the Indian Council of Agriculture Research and function as an independent institution under the University of Agricultural Sciences (ICAR). The funds released by the ICAR will be used for the research and betterment of the infrastructure facilities on the campus.

“We have good infrastructure to become an agricultural engineering college. As the admission process has started this year, we will be adding new courses from next year depending on the demand. But we will function as agricultural engineering college from this academic year only. We will add some more courses at MTech and PhD levels,” a senior official of agricultural college in GKVK told DH.

Presently, India has 23 agricultural engineering colleges. The first agricultural engineering college in Karnataka was established in Raichur. The agricultural engineering institute, which was offering diploma courses in agricultural engineering since 1969 was upgraded as agricultural engineering college in 1987.

Dr M Veerannagouda, Dean, college of agricultural engineering, Raichur, welcomed the government’s move. “There is lot of demand for agricultural courses at present. Being an agricultural engineering college, GKVK can offer more courses in MTech and PhD. More staff need to be recruited for the institution,” he said.