Assam Agricultural University

Assam Agricultural University
The seed of the Assam Agricultural University was sown by establishing the the Assam Agricultural College in 1948 in Jorhat, the cultural capital of Assam; and the Assam Veterinary College in the same year in Nagaon in middle Assam. The institution came to the present shape in 1969 with establishment of the Assam Agricultural University on April 1, 1969 by an act called The Assam Agricultural University Act, 1968 with its headquarters at Jorhat. Since then, being the sole agricultural university of the state, and the first such institution in the entire north-eastern region, Assam Agricultural University has been serving the interests of various stakeholders including the farmers, agripreneurs and the agricultural industry.

The foundation of an institution of agricultural education in the northeastern part of the country were sown way back in the first quarter of the 20th century with the establishment of two rice research stations, one at Karimganj in the Barak Valley and the other at Titabor in the Brahmaputra Valley in 1913 and 1923, respectively. Even while the stations were producing trainees, the need for an agricultural college was felt immediately after independence. Consequently, the Assam Agricultural College and the Assam Veterinary College came into existence as a result of exemplary willpower and dedication of Bharat Ratna Late Gopinath Bordoloi, the first Chief Minister of Assam, and a few other visionaries. In the beginning, both the colleges were affiliated to Gauhati University; the affiliation was later shifted to Dibrugarh University before the Assam Agricultural University came into being embracing both the colleges in 1969.

To carry out the education as per mandate, the University has six faculties in the fields of Agriculture, Veterinary, Community Science, Fishery, Horticulture and Sericulture with 9 constituent colleges - three in agriculture, two in veterinary science and one each in community science, fishery, horticulture and sericulture. Except horticulture and sericulture, all the other seven constituent colleges have their own state of the art facilities for imparting education in designated locations in the state. The Dean is the official head of the Faculty and Chairman of the Board of Studies of the respective Faculty. There is a Director of Post Graduate Studies to coordinate Post-Graduate Studies in all the departments and colleges of the University. To coordinate the research activities, the University has two full-fledged Directorates of Research, one for agriculture and community science and the other for veterinary science and fisheries science, headed by a Director of Research. The extension programme of the University is carried out under the Directorate of Extension Education headed by a Director of Extension Education. In addition, the University has Director of Students’ Welfare, Director of Physical Plant and Chief Librarian and other important officers as per the Statute. The Director of Students’ Welfare is responsible for arrangement of housing for students, student counselling and placement besides supervising the extra-curricular activities and general needs of the students. The Director of Physical Plant is responsible for all construction related activities and repair/renovation of the University.

Assam Agricultural University is the first institution of its kind in the whole of North-Eastern Region of India. The main goal of this institution is to produce globally competitive human resources in farm sectorand to carry out research in both conventional and frontier areas for production optimization as well as to disseminate the generated technologies as public good for benefitting the food growers/produces and traders involved in the sector while emphasizing on sustainability, equity and overall food security at household level.

Vision
Provisioning of quality human resource to facilitate technology led agricultural renaissance revitalizing and rejuvenating post-green revolution in agriculture ensuring both production and environment sustainability targeting a minimum of 4% agricultural growth while addressing the issues of household nutritional security, farmers' distress, commerce in agriculture as well as regional, national and global food crisis taking the advantage of innovative technology, market reforms and liberalization.

Mission
To fill up talent gap in agriculture and allied sector to preposition the state to combat the emerging challenges in agriculture and ensure productivity increase in agri-horti-animal-fish crops on the face of shrinking/fragmented land holdings, ailing soil health, diminishing water resources and increased human population.Technology showcasing and transfer to the user groups for science led agricultural growth