Hyderabad : Agriculture courses by private colleges under cloud

Hyderabad : Questions have been raised over the prospects of hundreds of students studying agriculture courses in private colleges of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. According to sources in the higher education departments of both the States, several private colleges have been seeking permissions to start B Sc general and honours courses in agriculture, horticulture, forestry and fisheries.

The colleges have sought approvals to start undergraduate, diploma and certificate courses in agriculture and allied fields. They wanted to start these courses as part of vocational education. While some have already got approvals, few others are in the queue. In Telangana too, some colleges have shown interest to launch the agriculture courses like their counterparts in Andhra Pradesh.

"Some colleges wanted to test waters by launching agriculture and allied courses after engineering courses are losing their sheen. Particularly, the popularity of agriculture and allied sectors have gone up in Telangana after the State government started giving top priority to that sector.

Also, the Andhra Pradesh is taking a slew of measures to give a fillip to the agriculture and allied sectors. Besides, the Centre has also come up with a mission to make agriculture profitable to farmers. This is all set to catch up with students from science backgrounds at an intermediate level to opt for admissions into agriculture and veterinary sciences. Hoping large scale opportunities waiting for them in the sector," the sources said.

However, the catch here is that the colleges will have to get accreditation from the National Agriculture Education Accreditation Board (NAEAB) within two years of launching the courses.

Speaking to The Hans India, sources in the Acharya NG Ranga Agriculture University, Guntur and Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agriculture University (PJTSAU), Hyderabad said, "NAEAB is the apex accreditation agency of the Indian Council for Agriculture Research (ICAR).

The colleges will have to get NAEAB accreditation. Failing, they may not be admitted in the master programmes at the university level. Besides, students studying agriculture and allied courses in non-accredited institutions may also face problems in getting good job opportunities. It might also pose a problem for the State governments of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh to treat them eligible for government vacancies in the agriculture and allied sectors," they pointed out.

Currently, the PJTSAU, Telangana and Acharya NG Ranga Agriculture University, Guntur and eight more colleges alone have the NAEAB accreditation in both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.