Baramati Agriculture college inks MoU with Dutch university

Agricultural Developments Trust's (ADT) College of Agriculture, Baramati has tied up with a Netherlands based agriculture university namely the Van Hall Larenstein (VHL), University of Applied Sciences. It will offer international programs in agriculture education. VHL is a part of Wageningen University.

An Meomorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed jointly between VHL and ADT and the Mahatma Phule Agriculture University, Rahuri. This development was announced by Sunanda Pawar, Trustee, ADT and Oosterhof who Program Director - Wageningen University, Netherlands,

"The intention of this tie-up is to create capable agri science graduates by exposing them to the most modern international formats in agriculture and horticulture so that they can take on future challenges in these fields", said Sunanda Pawar, Trustee, ADT. This new partnership is based on a four years graduate level program that is followed in the two countries.

Such programs are already run by VHL in countries like China, Thailand, Vietnam and Turkey.

This is the first collaboration of VHL with the College of Agriculture of Baramati to start such programs in India.

The eligibility criteria for both the 2+2 and 3+1 courses is H.S.C. (science) and the selection for the same in based on the entrance test followed by an interview by the selection panel.

The 2+2 format is an autonomous program whereby the students on completing the same will receive the internationally recognised VHL Bachelors degree.

While the students of the 3+1 program will receive Bachelor in Science (B.Sc) degrees from both Mahatma Phule Agriculture University and from VHL, the Netherlands.

The 2+2 program has been approved by the ICAR (Indian Council for Agricultural Research), whereas the 3+1 program has been approved upon by the Mahatma Phule Agriculture University and ICAR.

The intake for each program is of maximum 30 students while the annual fee for these courses is Rs 3 lakh.