COIMBATORE: Students of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) will now have hands-on experience in farming from their first year.
To facilitate better exposure to farm activities, the university has rolled out a novel scheme, one student-one farm family programme (OSOFFP) for first year students of 18 constituent colleges of TNAU.
“The objective of the scheme is to connect a student with a farmer’s family to facilitate self learning at the farm level and help them get better exposure to farming techniques in villages,” said Dr V Geethalakshmi, Vice-Chancellor of TNAU in a statement.
The students will get to know the practices involved in seed sowing, cropping pattern, irrigation methods, fertilizer application, farm machineries and plant protection measures adopted by farmers.
The scheme facilitates two way learning as constraints faced by farmers in seed and planting materials, fertilizer application, irrigation methods; pest and disease attack and climate related farm issues will be brought to the knowledge of scientists in TNAU. The experts will in-turn provide necessary advice to the farmers to rectify the problems through students.
A total of 2,395 students, who have enrolled for under graduate programmes in first year will benefit out of the innovative scheme.
Farmers representatives chosen from districts of 18 constituent colleges claimed that they will now be able to resolve issues related to farming by establishing a connection with scientists in the university.