University of Florida, Icrisat set up education centre

The University of Florida (UF) and the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (Icrisat) have entered into an agreement to jointly set up a distance education centre at the latter’s headquarters in Patancheru, about 30 km from here.

The proposed University of Florida-Icrisat International Distance Education Centre (UF-Icrisat-IDEC) is designed to create opportunities to develop and strengthen regionally relevant training and education programmes. It will enable the two institutions to pursue areas of common interest drawing on the joint expertise, Icrisat stated in a press release.

A series of short courses will be offered by the UF faculty with the participation of Icrisat scientists. The first set of courses will deal with GIS (geographical information system) in landscape analysis, analysis of bioenergy projects among others.

Future topics will include biotechnology and related topics as well. Participants in these short courses will receive a certificate jointly issued by the UF and Icrisat. The first course in the series, which will begin on Monday.

“Capacity strengthening of professionals in the developing countries is an absolute must in the current context of new vulnerabilities and opportunities in agriculture and natural resources management. We consider this as a first step in bringing research universities such as UF closer to where the developing country professionals work,” Icrisat director general, William Dar, said in the release.