KERALA
AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY
VELLANIKKARA, THRISSUR 690 654 (KERALA)
The Kerala
Agricultural University came into existence on 24 February 1971. The
Governor of Kerala is the Chancellor and the Minister for Agriculture
the Pro-Chancellor of the university. The supreme authority of the
University is the General Council and the chief executive body is the
Executive Committee. The Vice-Chancellor is the principal executive
and academic officer of the University, who is assisted by the
Registrar, the Comptroller, Deans of the Faculties, the Directors of
Research, Extension, Physical Plant, Students’ Welfare, and the
Librarian. In addition, the Director of Academic and Post-graduate
Studies assists the Vice-Chancellor in academic affairs.
The university has 10 constituent colleges, six Regional Agricultural Research Stations, 26 Research Stations, three Centres of Advanced Studies, the Central Training Institute, the Communication Centre, and five Krishi Vigyan Kendras.
In four faculties (agriculture, Veterinary and animal sciences, Fisheries and Agricultural engineering) with 56 departments, the university offers under-graduate and post-graduate programmes at Masters as well as Doctoral levels.
The major research contributions are: biological control of Salvinia molesta using Cyrtogagous salvinia; release of more than 100 varieties of crops including coconut, pepper and cocoa hybrids and two nationally acclaimed breeds of poultry (Athulya and Gramalekshmi); standardization of protocols for large- scale multiplication by in-vitro techniques in several crops; conservation of the near extinct Vechur cow; development of commercially viable technology for the hatchery production of seeds of the giant fresh-water prawn (Macrobrachium rosenbergii); designing and development of a simple coconut-husking tool; development of a cell-culture duck plague vaccine; and standardization of chemical tranquilization procedure for control of elephants and other captive and wild animals.
The university has five Krishi Vigyan Kendras. The university started the single-window approach for technology transfer through Agricultural Technology Information Centres.