The B. Sc (Hons.) Agriculture program will be of 177 credits, which will have 167 credits offered by the parent university and 10 credits of online courses taken by the student as per choice in consultation with university/HAEIs.
After the admission in the college, the students will register for the Foundation programme of 2 weeks’ duration in the 1st semester. A course entitled Deeksharambh (0+2) (Non-gradial) will be offered at the start of first semester for two weeks’ duration. This will create a platform for students to learn from each other’s life experiences, help for cultural Integration of students from different backgrounds, know about the operational framework of academic process in university, instilling life and social skills, social awareness, ethics and values, team work, leadership, creativity, etc. It will also help in identifying the traditional values and indigenous cultures along with diverse potentialities both in indigenous and developed scenario. There will be sessions by alumni, business leaders, outstanding achievers in related fields, people with inspiring life experiences as well as the university academic and research managers.
The first year of the course program comprises skill development courses along with other fundamental courses of agricultural science. After satisfactory completion of 42 credits of courses in two semesters of 1st year and subsequent satisfactory completion of 10 credits (10 weeks) of industry/ institute training/ internship, the student will become eligible for the award of UG-Certificate in Agriculture on exit. The students continuing the study further, would not have to attend the internship after 1st year.
The 2nd year has been designed with the skill development courses, basic courses as well as fundamental courses in agriculture with adequate theory and practical components, enabling the student to get acquainted with the basic principles and applications of agricultural sciences. After satisfactory completion of the courses (84 credits) during first two years and subsequent satisfactory completion of 10 credits (10 weeks) of internship, the student will become eligible for the award of UG-Diploma in Agriculture on exit. The students continuing the study further, would not have to attend the internship after 2nd year.
During the 5th semester, the students will have a study tour of 10-12 days duration, which will be counted as 2 credits (Nongradial).
The 3rd and 4th year courses have been designed to impart specialized knowledge to the students in the major disciplines. During the 7th semester, the students will adequately select 20 credits from a basket of elective courses, each course being of 4 credits giving an opportunity to them to gain advanced knowledge in frontier areas of agricultural science. The Universities will have flexibility to include more courses as Electives depending on specific needs and situational variations. The objective is to enable the student to acquire deeper understanding in any particular field.
In the 8th semester of the course the major focus has been on strengthening of the knowledge and skill for developing confidence of the students to take entrepreneurship as their future career. For this they will undergo an advanced skill enhancement through Student READY: RAWE/ Industrial Attachment /Experiential Learning / Hands-on Training/ Project Work / Internship. A student will select option/s on choice to complete the degree and pursue future career with 20 credits. Each student will be attached to a mentor either from the institution or from an organization/ industry. A university or a college will have the freedom to select the options as referred above.
The core and elective courses can also be modified maximum up to 30% with approval from competent authority of the University.
The students will take a minimum of 12 credits of online courses during four years as a partial requirement for the B.Sc. (Hons.) Agriculture program. The indicative list of courses has been provided; however, online courses can be from any field such as Agriculture and allied sciences, Basic Sciences, Humanities, Psychology, Anthropology, Economics, Business Management, Languages including foreign language, Communication skills/ Music, etc. and can be taken from NPTEL, Mook IT, edX, Coursera, SWAYAM or any other such reputed portal. The objective is to allow the students to groom their passion or strengthen their knowledge and competency in any field beyond prescribed courses. These online courses will be non-gradial and separate certificates would be issued by institute/organization offering the courses. However, the university/ institute will keep a record of such courses registered and completed by each student and indicate the title of the (successfully completed) courses in final transcript issued to the student. A student must submit the list of online courses along with the content he intends to undertake to the Principal of the college for a permission and records.
At each stage of exit (UG-certificate/ UG-Diploma and B.Sc. (Hons) Agriculture, the students are expected to acquire competency and confidence to get jobs, to face the real challenges in varied jobs and research, as well as to start their own enterprise. The social skills acquired by the students will also make the students more empathetic towards the society and social issues.
The credits (and contact hours) have been designed in such a way that along with class room teaching, the students will take up NSS/ NCC and Physical Education, Yoga, etc. in the first year as the case may be. Further a balance has been made by inclusion of common courses, core courses in basic and applied areas, skill development courses, elective courses in advanced areas, online courses of choice, options for entrepreneurship and skill development to pursue future career. This will increase their acquaintance with the social/ technical problems, improve their analytical ability of the issues/ challenges and enhance their social responsibility.
