College of Agriculture – Hassan

The College is located near Karekere, at 19Kms from Hassan on National Highway-48 (Bangalore-Mangalore) towards Bangalore. Hassan is well connected by road and train facilities.

By recognizing the importance of agricultural education in rural areas, the University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore has rightly selected Hassan as the ideal location to start Agricultural College. The district has varied agro-climatic conditions congenial for growing of various field as well as fruits and plantation crops. The college would help the farming community of the state in general and Hassan district in particular by way of producing well trained manpower, genuine agricultural inputs like seeds, planting materials and other information from time to time for overall development of the rural community.

Genesis:

Government of Karnataka in the year 1963 with the objective of serving the farming community in a bid to improve the crops and crop production by adopting the contemporary technology from across the globe in a bid to achieve self sufficiency in food production and thereby food security.

As a part of government policy to ruralise agricultural education in the country, a new College of Agriculture was started in 1996 for Hassan district. Initially the classes were conducted at GKVK Campus, Bangalore due to non-availability of infrastructure at Hassan. Subsequently the new campus at Karekere, Hassan was established in 2006. The Campus has 184 acres of land 21 km from Hassan on Mangalore-Bangalore Highway (NH-75).

A degree program in Agriculture Biotechnology was started in the year 2007 accentuating mandate of imparting knowledge in Agricultural Biotechnology. Application of Biotechnology in a comprehensive and responsible manner is of paramount importance in developing sustainable Agricultural practices in pest, disease and stress management, and in increasing crop yield. The degree program strives to achieve this with the core focus of developing trained manpower with a strong educational foundation.

To meet the requirements for well qualified and trained manpower for the fast growing food processing industry, the B. Tech (Food Sci. and Tech.) degree program was started in the year 2007. Various courses in specialized areas of Food and Nutritional Science, Food Processing Technology, Food and Industrial Microbiology, Food Engineering and Food Trade and Business Management are offered. Importance is given to both for theoretical as well as practical knowledge.