Karnataka to have agriculture research council

Intended to completely eradicate the privatisation lobby for the agricultural science courses from its root level, the students of Agriculture in Karnataka have demanded the state government to set up Agriculture Education and Research Council.

The state-level body, which is likely to be established, will be the supreme authority and it will separate agriculture courses from normal educational courses.

Ramesh, a students' union leader at GKVK, told DH, “We were successful in getting the Rai Technology Act amended by the state government. The establishment of the research council will completely curb the lobby for privatisation at the grassroots level. Giving permission to the private colleges to start agricultural science courses will be decided by the council. This will also bring all the agriculture colleges in the state under one umbrella and ensure uniformity in all aspects of the course.”

The council will bring in common norms for all the agricultural universities across the state. This will also be authoritative in conducting Common Entrance Test for agricultural courses. “We have asked the government to follow the Maharastra method, where the governor will be the chairman of the council. This will distance the agriculture course from the politics,” Ramesh added.

Punjab and Maharastra have the state agricultural councils already. This body will also bring regulations in illegal staff recruitment process, framing the upgraded syllabus for students and bring in more transparency in the agricultural system. Confirming the development, Maheshwara Rao, secretary, Agriculture Department, said, “I have written to the vice-chancellors of all the agricultural universities in the state to work on the legal framework in establishing the council. They will be submitting the report shortly, after which the process of formation of the committee will speed up.”

The newly formed council will deal with all the legal issues of the agricultural universities in the state. This will be the same, which the Higher Education Council is doing. “The issue will be discussed in the meeting of coordination committee which will be held in next week. We will look into the councils of other states and set the framework for the establishment of a similar council in the state,” a senior official of the University of Agricultural Sciences, Bengaluru, said.