The College of Agriculture (COA), Bikaner was established in 1988 and located at 10th milestone on Sriganganagar road, Beechwal, Bikaner. The College offers a four year (eight semester) B.Sc.(Ag.) programme, two year (four semester) M.Sc.(Ag.) programme in nine disciplines viz., Agronomy, Agricultural Economics, Biotechnology, Entomology, Horticulture, Plant Breeding & Genetics, Plant Pathology, Soil Science and Extension Education and a three year (six semester) Ph.D. programme in nine disciplines viz., Agronomy, Agricultural Economics, Biotechnology, Entomology, Horticulture, Plant Breeding & Genetics, Plant Pathology, Soil Science and Extension Education.

The College was established to transform agriculture from livelihood to a profitable business. Bikaner region of the state is mainly characterized by the presence of Thar which makes the environment of the region highly fragile with hot arid climate. Advent of irrigation facilities through Indira Gandhi Nahar Pariyojana and increased tube well irrigated areas, has made agriculture profitable proposition. For last 26 years, the college has become the nerve centre for generating technically trained manpower in agriculture and allied subjects. Students from different parts of the country even from different countries are joining the college through Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR).

Mission

Human Resource Development for excellence in Sustainable Arid Agriculture and Food Security.

Goals

• To generate qualified human resource in the field of agriculture and its allied subjects for meeting out the requirement at local, state, national and global level
• To improve and sustain quality of Agricultural Education and develop human recourse for competing with emerging challenges in Agriculture for livelihood security and sustainable development

Objectives

• To impart education in agricultural science and its allied subjects
• To undertake research in agriculture science and allied fields for the inclusive and sustainable development of all stake holders
• To disseminate agro technologies and undertake mass educational programs especially for rural people of Rajasthan for development of sustainable livelihoods in agriculture and its allied activities
• To undertake any other such work, activity or project as the university may deem proper in order to achieve the objectives for which it has been established.

In order to reach the goals and achieve the objectives, the college is involved in all the three major activities viz., Human Recourse Development, Research, & Extension Education. All these three activities are being taken care of and are executed by the college. The college offers the following programmes:

A four years B.Sc. (Hons.) Ag.

In B.Sc. (Hons.) Ag. Programme the intake capacity of students is 80+20 (payment seat). In M.Sc. Ag. Programme, the intake capacity of students varies from 4 to 6, whereas in the Ph.D. progamme the intake capacity is two in each department. Admission to UG and PG progammes is made through Joint Entrance Test (JET) and Pre-PG Test, respectively. Students from other states are admitted through the All India Entrance Examination (AIEEA) conducted by Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi. Candidates for Ph.D. programme are admitted on the basis of academic record and interview.
College fees per semester including hostel fees.

• UG Program : 12000/-
• PG Program : 16000/-
• Ph. D. Program : 18000/-*

*Approximate fee, varies on the basis of category, gender etc of the student. Payment fee is extra.

Departments

• Agronomy
• Agricultural Economics
• Genetics & Plant Breeding
• Horticulture
• Soil Science & Agricultural Chemistry
• Plant Pathology
• Entomology
• Agricultural Extension & Communication
• Biotechnology
• Live Stock Production and management
• Agricultural Engineering
• Statistics, Mathematics and English

The college has the following infrastructural facilities:

• Instructional farm of 5 hectares. Entire farm under pressurized irrigation. Cultivation with modern implements & tools
• Library with 30000 books, 74 e-books, 42 journals, 436 thesis, Management by RFID System, information resources viz., CeRA, Krishi Kosh.
• Modern ICT facilities viz., 22 internet connections within campus.
• Smart Class Rooms for teaching.
• Video Conferencing System
• Separate internet connection for CeRA accessibility of journals.
• Internet connectivity to PG hostels.
• All departments, conference and seminar rooms facilitated with multimedia.
• Central laboratory: equipped with modern equipments
• Computer laboratory.
• Canteen
• Hostels (7): UG hostel(2), PG hostels(2), Girls Hostel(2) Separate hostels are available for UG, PG and Ph.D. students. Girl students are provided accommodation in Girl’s Hostel at the University campus and a common international hostel for foreign students.

The college has class rooms with modern instructional facilities and laboratories well equipped with state-of-the-art equipments and analytical facilities.

The library has Book Bank facility and reprographic services. Transport facility is available for day scholars.

The College has sanctioned faculty strength of 52, but the working faculty number is 29 including the Dean of the College. Integration of the teaching faculty working at Bikaner has increased faculty strength to 58. All the faculty members are well qualified with research specializations in various areas focused on arid and semi-arid agriculture.
The college is supported with adequate financial assistance by the Government of Rajasthan on a regular basis. For strengthening and development of teaching and infrastructure facilities the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Government of India, New Delhi provides sufficient budget on annual basis.

During the past nearing 32 years period, the college has made notable contributions in turning out high quality human resource at B.Sc. (Hons.) Ag. . M.Sc. Ag. and Ph.D. levels. Many of the students have occupied high positions in their profession and contributed to agricultural growth in various parts of the country. From the research work of post graduate students, a number of publications have been made in journals of national and international repute.

The College has a Placement Cell, enabling students to seek employment in banks, private companies, NGOs etc., besides advice for taking up further education in various national and international institutes or jobs in Government sector.
In tune with modernization of agricultural education, the fifth Deans' committee recommendations
have been implemented at both UG and PG levels. Experiential learning courses are offered to undergraduate students in the following areas.

o Vermi-culture and vermi-composting
o Hi-Tech Nursery management
o Post harvest technology and value addition of fruits and vegetables
o Plant Micro-propagation
o Mass production of Bio-agents

For each of the above skill development courses, the college has well equipped Experiential Learning units established with the financial support of the Education Division, ICAR, and New Delhi. The post graduate and doctoral students can conduct research on enhancing water and fertilizer use efficiency in crops at the field laboratory established under the ICAR supported Niche Area of Excellence Project on micro-irrigation system at the University campus.

The College is continuously striving for high quality agricultural education and basic research with a perspective on blending eco-technology with frontier areas of agricultural science viz., biotechnology, environmental science, organic farming. M. Sc. Ag. in Bio-technology programme is run at the Plant Bio-technology Centre at the University campus. The centre is equipped with the state-of-the- art facilities and sophisticated equipments, besides a Radio Tracer Laboratory established with the support of a project funded by the Board of Research in Nuclear Sciences, DAE, Mumbai. The college has strengthened Department of Livestock Production and Management, and has plans for establishing Department of Environmental Science and a Centre for harnessing renewable energy for increased farm efficiency in agriculture.

Linkages and Networking with external agencies in Research/Extension/ Teaching

STUDENT’S CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES

The Director student Welfare is responsible for other residential requirements viz; Games, Sports, Co-curricular Activities, Counseling and Placements, Health care, NCC/NSS and hostel facilities of the students. There is a provision for the participation of students in the various co-curricular and extra co-curricular activities for their personality development.

STUDENT ASSOCIATION

There are students associations at college and university level which are supervised by their respective office bearers and executives committees with the following functions.

• To promote corporate life in the campus.
• To ensure the maintenance of proper academic atmosphere, orderliness and discipline in the campus.
• To help in the organization of academic, cultural, social and sports functions in the campus.
• To organize programmes of Students Welfare, including living conditions.
• To coordinate and integrate the activities of various clubs and societies in the campus.
• Any other function connected with students’ welfare as assigned by the university authorities.

STUDENT ADVISORY SYSTEM

A unique ‘Advisory System’ has been evolved and implemented to ensure proper attention to each student. One teacher, named as Advisor, is allotted to a group of 4-6 students to watch, guide and supervise their academic activities. One senior teacher/HOD is made as an overall incharge of one UG class of the college, and is named as Tutor. ‘Student counseling’ system is also in vogue, which is also unique to this university. In this system, a team of faculty members have been trained as Counselors by the professionals, who share responsibility of counseling the students with respect to different facets of life at the university campus, including personality issues, social aspects, career and any other day to day problem. This system has become exemplary in the state.

Working Days & Hours:

• All week days are working days.
• II Saturday and declared public holidays are non-working days.
• From 10.00 am to 5.00 pm on all working days.

  Profile of Institutes/Unit

  • Available facilities

  • • • • Laboratories: 16 laboratories equipped with modern instruments and analytical facilities.

        • Class room /Smart Class room: 15 Smart Class Rooms for teaching.

        • Library : Modern Library: 32000 books, 74 e-books, 42 journals, 550 theses. Library Management by RFID System, information resources viz., CeRA, Krishi Kosh. Separate internet connection for reading of magazines by CeRA.

        • Primary Medical Aid :Primary medical facilities are available to offer initial medical assistance to students and faculty at the college.

  • Number of students (Programme wise)

   

  Programme	Intake Capacity	Intake during the year 2023-24			Total enrolment (including students of all years)
  		Male	Female	Total	Male	Female	Total
  UG	120	76	44	120	277	142	419
  PG	50	23	26	49	50	43	93
  Ph.D.	32	15	15	30	52	32	84
  Total	202	114	85	199	379	217	596

   

  S.No.	Program/Subjects	Intake	Number of enrolled students
  				A.	B.Sc. (Hons)Agriculture	120	419
  B.	M.Sc.Agriculture
  1	Agronomy	9	17
  2	Agricultural Economics	4	08
  3	Genetics and Plant Breeding	5	09
  4	Vegetable Science	5	09
  5	Soil Science	6	13
  6	Plant Pathology	5	10
  7	Entomology	5	10
  8	Agricultural Extension Education	5	08
  9	Biotechnology	3	06
  10	Live Stock Production & Management	3	03
  	Total	50	9393
  C.	Ph.D.
  1	Agronomy	5	14
  2	Agricultural Economics	4	10
  3	Genetics and Plant Breeding	3	07
  4	Vegetable Science &Horticulture	4	14
  5	Fruit Science	2	02
  6	Soil Science	3	06
  7	Plant Pathology	4	12
  8	Entomology	3	07
  9	Agricultural Extension Education	4	12
  	Total	32	84

  • Hostels
  • Capacity of Hostel:

  S.N.	Name of Hostel	Type of Hostel (Boys/Girls)	Wi-Fi	Accommodation Facilities in Number
  				Rooms	Beds	Total No. of allotted Beds
  	New UG Hostel No. -2	Boys	No	34	68	52
  	HG Singh UG Hostel	Boys	No	54	101	62
  	PG Hostel No. -2	Boys	Yes	67	100	71
  	Ph. D. Hostel	Boys	No	15	24	24
  	UG Girls’ Hostel	Girls	No	82	120	107
  	P. G. Girls’ Hostel	Girls	Yes	30	47	38
  	International Hostel	Boys & Girls	Yes	09	18	0
  Total				291	478	354

  • Wi-Fi facility: Wi-Fi facility is available in PG & Ph.D. hostels.
  • Mess and drinking water: Available
  • Common Room : Available
  • Intellectual Property related:
  • • Product :N/A
    • Varieties : N/A
    • Technologies Technical : N/A
    • Bulletin/Extension : N/A
  • Research/reviews/articles
  • Training programme
  • • Implemented till previous year

  Training conducted -2022-23

  Department/Unit	Activity	Title	No. of Days	Dates (date/month/year)	No. of Participants
  Agronomy	Training	Organic farming for enhancing farm income	07	11 to 17 April 2023	59
  Plant Pathology	Seven Days Training	Attracting and Retaining Youths for Entrepreneurship in Mushroom Cultivation	07	17-23 January , 2023	100
  Agricultural Engineering	Stall Exhibition in Kisan Mela of University level	Stall of Department of Ag. Engineering	03	March 27-29, 2023	7000
  Department of Horticulture	Training	Post-harvest management and value addition of fruits and vegetables	07	March 18 – 24, 2023	40
  Department of Entomology	Training	Development of Entrepreneurship in Commercial Beekeeping	07	Feb. 17-23, 2023	38
  Department of Plant pathology	Training	Attracting and Retaining Youth for Entrepreneurship in Mushroom Production	07	January 17-23, 2023	93

  • • Ongoing training programmes

  Training conducted -2023-24

  Department/Unit	Activity	Title	No. of Days	Dates (date/month/year)	No. of Participants
  Livestock Production and Management Department	training	Commercial poultry farming”	07	May 18-24, 2023.	53
  Department of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry	training	Soil and water testing and instrumentation	07	June 6–12, 2023	59
  Department of Live Stock Production and Management	training	Entrepreneurship Development through Sheep and Goat Farming	07	Dec. 27, 2023 to January 02, 2024.	52
  Department of Plant Pathology	training	Mushroom production technology	07	January 3–9, 2024.	59
  Department of Plant Pathology	Winter School	Effective Strategies for Modern Plant Disease Management	21	06-26 February, 2024	25

  • • Proposal for next year