Model village by Agri students

Final year students of B.Sc. Agriculture with their exhibit of a model village they had made for the exhibition at the end of their 30-day village stay. The exhibition was organised at the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University in the city on Monday.The 15 groups of 87 final year B. Sc. Agriculture students of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University have just come back after a 30-day stint in a village, where they played roles of “individual farm planners” as well as “village development planners”.

The exhibition that was put up by them on Monday at the university showcased lessons they had learnt at the villages and also shared their success stories with other groups. The models and exhibits reflected the alternative farm plans they had implemented or proposed to implement (by the farmer) at the model farms. The models showed improvement plans for the farm and the village. There were feasibility plans that could be implemented with the available resources and to tackle problems of labour and migration.

The village stay programme is one of the four components of the six-day Rural Agricultural Work Experience (RAWE), which is part of the curriculum. The other three are agro-industrial tie-up programme, development department programme and the non-governmental programme, wherein students spend time in an industry, a State Department of Agriculture and a Non-Governmental Organisation for a total of 30 days. This is an exercise in experiential learning.

The 15 groups were placed in as many villages in Coimbatore, Erode, Namakkal, Salem, Dharmapuri, Krishnagiri and Dindigul districts. A group of six or seven were attached to a progressive farmer who acted as a host farmer.Each group observed how the farmer adopted the techniques of the university. They also got to know if he followed indigenous techniques that he had developed from his experiences. “The groups gets orientation about the demographic factors, climatic conditions, farming situations, infrastructure, agricultural implements in use and machinery used, before they set out to their villages,” says K. Vanangamudi, Dean (Agriculture), who is also the co-ordinator of the RAWE.

“Once we reached the villages, we got to know hands-on the difficulties experienced by the farmers in implementing the techniques, in obtaining inputs, specific constraints of the farmers and general problems of the village. We got to know what agriculture is in real situation,” observe the students.Each group has a unique experience to share. The experiences have enabled them to supplement and strengthen the learning they have gained in the classrooms.“The programme that all final year students undergo is an extension of the practical syllabus they have. The village stay enables them to compare what they have learnt with what does really exist,” adds the dean.

The exercise is also an effort to develop the spirit of entrepreneurship.The university hopes that the four components of the RAWE will expose students to the various facets of agricultural enterprise, be it actual farming, or working from outside in an industry, Governmental department or an NGO related to agriculture, before they try to make a career decision.

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