9th Regional Meeting of Vice-Chancellors of Indian Agricultural Universities Association (IAUA).
Today, 9th Regional Meeting of Vice-Chancellors of Indian Agricultural Universities Association (IAUA) kicked off at Navsari Agricultural University emphasizing on the theme: ‘NEP-2020: Importance and feasibility of Short Term and Certified courses in Agricultural Universities’ from November 23-25, 2022.
The inaugural ceremony was blessed with the virtual presence of Hon’ble Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, GoI Shri. Kailash Choudhary ji as a Chief Guest; Dr. Z. P. Patel, Vice-Chancellor, NAU Navsari as President; Shri. Kiranbhai Patel, Jt. MD, ASPEE Group of Companies, Mumbai and Dr. Kishorsinh Chavda, Vice-Chancellor, VNSGU, Surat as Guests of Honour. Dr. Rameshwar Singh, President of IAUA and Vice-Chancellor, BASU, Patna and Dr. Dinesh Kumar, Executive Secretary of IAUA as special guest. Delegates of around 30 universities from Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Bihar, Rajasthan, Punjab, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Haryana, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh are attending the meet.
Dr. Z. P. Patel welcomed all the dignitaries and illustrated about the agricultural technologies developed by NAU such as Novel, bio-fertilizers, bio-pesticides, fruit fly trap, banana pseudo stem etc. He also mentioned the importance of skill development in Indian youths through certified courses and urged all the VCs to make collaborative efforts. While inaugurating the meeting through virtual mode Shri. Kailash Choudhary put forward the futuristic approach regarding the agricultural education. He shared the fact that, “India has share of only 1% in total number of students enrolled in agricultural education globally and that of 27% enrolled in higher education in all the disciplines in India. It is targeted to increase these percentages to 9% and 50% respectively by 2033.” He committed 15% increase in intake of students in agricultural universities every year.
During the inaugural ceremony, a document ‘PARIVARTAN-Change for the Development’ was released by the dignitaries which contains the ‘key initiatives taken by Dr. Z. P. Patel as Vice Chancellor for the transformation of the university into knowledge power center’. Also the latest issue 'Spectrum- A quarterly news bulletin' of NAU was also released.
Speaking as a Guest of Honour, Shri. Kiranbhai Patel, Jt. MD, ASPEE Group of Companies, Mumbai expressed his gratitude for being associated with NAU since long time. He introduced about ASPEE Agricultural Research and Development Foundation and highlighted the various activities they carry out through the foundation.
Dr. Kishorsinh Chavda, Guest of Honour at the event congratulated NAU for achieving grand success in various activities in very short span of time and working for the betterment of farming community of South Gujarat.
Dr. Rameshwar Singh, President of IAUA shared that the motto of formation of the association is to act as a bridge between Agricultural Universities and ICAR as well as Government of India. He said “we have to take efforts to attract youth in agriculture to reduce the global issues like food crisis and climate change.”
Dr. Dinesh Kumar, Executive Secretary of IAUA applauded the management and hospitality of NAU during the meeting. He said, “NAU has raised the bar for other universities to organise such type of events in near future.” He briefed about IAUA, history of formation, founding members and various activities taken place so far. The inaugural session ended with the vote of thanks by the organizing secretary Dr. Timur Ahlawat, Director of Research and Dean PG Studies, NAU, Navsari.
