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TNN, Jan 19, 2011, 01.27am IST
VARANASI: Experts from the US and India held a discussion on food sciences and agricultural education, in the city on Tuesday. The Indo-US dialogue was organised by the Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Banaras Hindu University (BHU). A delegation of scientists from College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS), Cornell University, USA, visited the Institute of Agriculture Sciences, BHU, for a possible collaboration under the USAID programme.
A university spokesperson said that the USAID programme is to be implemented by a consortium of universities, with the BHU and the Cornell University as leading players.
In this reference, several US universities have visited the BHU in the past. There is a possibility of launching this programme in February.
This initiative will give an impetus to the agricultural research, extension and teaching in the country.
Speaking on the occasion, Ronnie Coffman, a professor of plant breeding and director of international programmes, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Cornell University, said he has visited many of the 140 rice research stations in India while working with the International Rice Research Institute, Philippines, and also worked with important institutes of Indian Council of Agriculture Research, New Delhi.
He said he is hopeful of a fruitful collaboration between the BHU and the Cornell University.
Max J Pfeffer, senior associate dean, CALS, said the Cornell University has already started a few programmes with some universities in India, especially dual degree programmes in the field of plant biotechnology and agri-business management.
Such programmes have helped several Indian students including some from the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, fetch better jobs at international level, he said. "I am looking forward to having a similar collaboration with the BHU," he said.
He further stated that the BHU-Cornell partnership programme will include issues like food security, population increase and expected food supply, and agriculture in global environment.
In this reference, he said that the USAID programme will address the issues of global technological needs and environmental issues related to food production.
S S H Rizvi, a professor of food science, spoke about agriculture and food science in global prospective.
He said that though India has attained self sufficiency in food production, a large chunk of population still lives under the poverty line.
"The US processes its food up to 80% in response of only 2% to 3% in India," he said, adding this is one of the reasons of high percentage of food getting wasted in India.
He said that India has the potential to become a leading player in the food industry in the coming days.
Pilar Parra, a nutritionist and senior lecturer, CALS, Cornell University, spoke on the phenomenon of 'occurrence of obesity in middle income group due to poor management of nutrition'.
A K Shrivastav, director, National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI), Karnal, spoke about contribution of agriculture and allied sciences in economy of the country.
He was of opinion that during the green revolution, in addition to self sufficiency in foodgrain, other agriculture sciences like horticulture, vegetable, milk, meat, egg production had also progressed manifold.
Presiding over the programme, BHU vice-chancellor D P Singh said the partnership programme with the Cornell University would be useful for the BHU as well as the country.
The programme was coordinated by Alok Jha.
S R Singh, director, Institute of Agricultural Sciences; dean Kalyan Singh, Subedar Singh, and several others attended the programme.
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Illinois university team visits
VARANASI: A delegation from the University of Illinois, USA made a visit to Banaras Hindu University and called on the vice-chancellor Prof DP Singh on Wednesday.
(Photo: http://varanasiview.blogspot.com/2011/01/delegation-from-university-of-illinois.html)
According to the university spokesperson, the delegation included Dr Hao Feng, associate professor of Food and Bio-process Engineering, Dr Mary P Arends-Kuenning, associate professor of Economics Demography and International Development, and Dr Mindy Mallory, assistant professor of Agricultural marketing and Policy.
Earlier a delegation under BHU V-C had visited University of Illinois during May-June 2010 and signed an MoU with the university in the field of agricultural sciences.
An USAID programme comprising a consortium of various US universities with BHU is in advance stage of implementation. In this reference, several US Universities are visiting BHU and this programme is likely to be launched in February 2011.
This initiative will give an international exposure to agriculture research, extension and teaching in India, as a whole and BHU in particular. In this reference, this delegation from University of Illinois is on exploratory visit to BHU. The delegation had meeting with all the head of departments of Institute of Agricultural Sciences. The delegation also visited various laboratories and departments.
They also showed interest in post harvest technology, food sciences, agriculture economics, bioprocess engineering, and other fields of agricultural sciences.
The VC informed them about Institute of Agricultural Sciences as well as Rajiv Gandhi South Campus and strength of BHU in agriculture and rural development.
Dr Mindy L Mallory inquired about migration from rural area to city. These discussions will form the basis of future collaboration between two universities. On Thursday, a meeting will be held to finalise issues to be taken up in the near future as the area of exchange between the two universities. The meeting was also attended by director, dean, coordinator food sciences, and other officials.
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Agri students hot-selling to banks
TNN, Jan 14, 2011, 09.55pm IST
VARANASI: The Banaras Hindu University (BHU) is witnessing a booming start to its campus placements with the start of the New Year. The university believes that this will set the pace for bumper job offers under various disciplines in the coming two months, considered as the peak of recruitment season in the university.
While the Institute of Technology (IT) and Faculty of Management Studies (FMS) have spearheaded and bolstered the booming campus recruitments, other faculties including the Institute of Agriculture Sciences (IAS) and Rajiv Gandhi South Campus (RGSC), Barkachha have also joined the spree to mark a healthy start to the year.
"A number of nationalised banks have queued up to recruit undergraduate and postgraduate students with background in agriculture," informed in-charge of training and placement cell, IAS-BHU, AP Singh while talking to TOI on Thursday. "The list includes Bank of Baroda (BOB), Bank of India, Dena Bank and a number of private banks. They will hold campus recruitments for BHU students in the next two months," he said.
It may be mentioned here that the Dena Bank will be selecting BHU students in the rank of agriculture officers for the first time. Similarly other banks have also shown interest in recruiting BHU students in category of junior management scale (JMS-1), including rural development officers.
As per HP Mathur of FMS, the start of campus recruitment season has been terrific and it is likely to continue in the next two months when the season will finally culminate. "There has been a significant increase in the number of job offers and salary packages offered to selected students. The RGSC that runs two-year MBA (Agri Business) programme has also witnessed booming recruitments with selection of over 10 students of final semester," he added. The reports of FMS also indicate that more than 50 job offers have been already grabbed by the MBA students while a number of offers are likely to come up during the ongoing campus recruitments in the next two months. Similarly, IT-BHU has already registered over 200 job offers for B. Tech (final year), M. Tech and integrated dual degree (IDD) programme.
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http://www.bhu.ac.in/InstituteofAgriculturalSciencesBHU/index.html
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Varanasi 221005, UP