POLYTECHNIC IN AGRICULTURAL ENGINEERING, AAU

Our civilisation has been rightly called as a “Rishi and Krishi Sanskriti”. India is the world’s earliest knowledge-base civilization that begins from Vedic times. The documentation on agriculture dates back to the Indus valley civilisation tha re dates back to the Indus valley civilisation that flourished some 4500 years ago. Agriculture has been therefore been the true ‘culture’ of India. Although agriculture has made rapid strides in the last decades, the share of agriculture in national GDP has decreased. Yet sustains 70 per cent of our population provides employment to our large mass of people. The Agriculture Engineering plays a very important role in increasing production and productivity of agricultural crops, thereby, increasing the income of farmers. Also, timeliness of farm operation through efficient agricultural implements and machinery as well as appropriate land and water management activities along with efficient post harvest technology and processing as well as efficient energy utilization are the important are areas in which Agricultural Engineering profession has been playing major role. Keeping this in mind, the Three year Diploma programme in Agriculture Engineering has been started under the shed of Anand Agricultural University in the tribal area of Dahod district. This course aspires to become a premier course in the field of Agricultural Engineering with teaching and extension education programmes that are responsive to the needs of the farmers of this area. At this time the need of a diploma in Agriculture engineering is of immense importance. As a result, this kind of assistance graduate engineer getting a degree will be helpful as in other fields like civil, mechanical, electrical etc. But this non-agriculture engineering graduates, because of lack of experience, unable to carry out their work more effectively. So the past experience has shown that there is an excellent scope for engaging the services of both Degree and Diploma agriculture engineers in the state, whose services help in efficient utilization of resources in the field of Agriculture and Horticulture. The two most important factors of which are the backbone of Indian agriculture wherein our 70% of population engaged directly and substituted part of the remaining population is also engaged indirectly. Considering the importance of Agricultural Engineering, the Government of Gujarat approved to establish the Polytechnic in Agricultural Engineering under the Anand Agricultural University in Vanbandhu kalyan yojna at Dahod Campus. Accordingly, the Polytechnic in Agricultural Engineering started in March, 2008 at Dahod as the constitute college of Anand Agricultural University with the broad mandate of teaching, research and extension education in agricultural engineering. The college has well developed laboratories, modern class rooms, computer laboratory as well as seminar halls in all the department of the college. The computer laboratory has internet connectivity to all the computers in the laboratories, so that the students can have access to different websites for academic and researches purposes.