DR BALASAHEB SAWANT
KONKAN KRISHI VIDYAPEETH
DAPOLI 415 712 (MAHARASHTRA)
The university offers,
besides under-graduate and post-graduate courses 10+2 lower level diploma
courses as well. It has programmes in Agriculture, Horticulture, Forestry,
Animal Husbandry and Dairy Science, Agricultural Engineering and
Fisheries.
In the Konkan region, about 5.58 lakhs fallow cultivable waste land could be brought under rain-fed horticultural crops. The university developed and standardized the various propagation methods like stone grafting, veneer grafting, soft-wood grafting in various horticultural crops of the region. It is producing quality planting material worth 15 lakhs annually.
Notable research achievements are the development of 34 varieties, including hybrid rice Sahyadri. To overcome the problem of alternate bearing habit and spongy tissue in ripe fruits of Alphanso, Ratna variety was developed an also a parthenocarpic variety Sindhu. It cashew varieties Vengurla 1 to 7 have been hailed revolutionary. .
In the Fisheries faculty, the important achievements include rice-cum-fish culture technology, phased fertilization technique for carp rearing, study of biological and economic implications of purse-seining, standardization of mesh size for fishing, development of fish-seed hatchery-cum-spawnery equipment, measure to reduce puffer meanace, artificial culture of prawns, cross-breeding of freshwater prawns, formulation of feed for inland fisheries and artificial rearing of green mussels.
The university has developed Lakshi Baug concept for the Konkan farming community, in which 0.4 ha from (1 acre) of coconut and spices intercropping orchard, a farmer can earn Rs 1 lakh per year.
The university has the Best Agricultural University award in (1997) and Indira Priyadarshani Vruksha Mitra Puraskar (1996).