This document discusses the status of information and communication technology (ICT) integration in agricultural higher education institutions in India. It analyzes data collected from 20 agricultural colleges across 10 state agricultural universities in 4 states. The key findings are that ICT is used primarily for administrative functions like admissions, exams, and notifications. Few universities have integrated ICT into teaching and learning by developing e-courses or equipping classrooms with technologies. Infrastructure and resources for ICT vary significantly between states and institutions. The document provides recommendations to strengthen ICT adoption, training, budgeting, and facilities at all agricultural universities.

1. Prof. Surya Rathore
Principal Scientist (Extension Information Systems),
ICAR – National Academy of Agricultural Research
Management, Hyderabad – 500030 (Telangana)
E-mail: suryarathore@naarm.org.in

2. Introduction
• The field of agricultural
sciences encompasses a
wide range of subjects
related to how humans use
and develop natural
resources for their benefit.
They include horticulture,
food science and nutrition,
dairy science, agronomy,
food technology, agricultural
engineering, Community
sciences etc.
• Excellence in Higher
Education is not only about
achieving outstanding
results with outstanding
faculty and students, but
also value addition by the
institution to the different
stakeholders with different
needs and expectations.

3. World Class Universities
World Class
culture to
nurture &
sustain
World class
students
World
class
Professors

4. 7 Basic elements of WCU (Ramakrishna 2012)
 Having international curriculum
 Increase the student exchange
 Increase the international students’ registration
 Emphasize on the improvement of faculty and professors’
communication
 Use information technology
 Support the cooperation with foreign institutions to
strengthen
 Progress in the international development process.

5. ICTs integration in higher agricultural
education
Integrating ICTs for what?
Administration of agricultural
institutions, record-keeping,
research, teaching and learning
process etc.. ………
To survive in this competitive world
Efforts of Education Division of ICAR
• Education Division of ICAR has
spent crores of rupees on
establishment of e-libraries,
SMART classrooms, SMART
seminar halls, strengthening of
computer laboratories and ET
Cells in SAUs apart from
developing e-courses, platforms
like e-granth etc.
To be world class in true sense

6. To document the status of various ICT tools in
Agricultural Education in our SAUs
To suggest future road map for strengthening ICT
in Agricultural Education
Objectives

7. Selected States of the Study

8. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
• 20 Colleges from 10
SAUs of 4 States, viz; MP,
J&K, Gujarat, Rajasthan
10 SAUs
• Secondary sources such as University
websites, Reports, Journals etc.
• Online questionnaire put on NAARM
website
(https://naarm.org.in/ictsurvey/Default
.aspx) , interviews from 20 Deans & 05
Nodal Officers, Observations
Tools for
data
collection

9. Status of ICTs
ICTs used as mode of course
delivery, infrastructural
facilities such as online library,
Wi-Fi facility, computer lab
etc.
ICTs are also used for
administrative support such as
CCTV, Admission,
Recruitment, Fee payment,
Bio metric attendance etc.

10. Findings
• Only 4/10 SAUs reported ICT related information for mode
of course delivery namely; JNKVV (M P), A A U(Guj),
SKNAU, Jobner (Raj) and MPUA&T, Udaipur (Raj). JNKVV,
Jabalpur has resources for course delivery such as e-
learning through e- content development
• AAU, Anand has every class room equipped with
interactive white board, projector and CCTV and online
examination conducted in College of Agricultural
Information Technology, Anand.
• Out of 10 SAUs under study, only 2 had developed e-
courses (AAU & Jabalpur)

11. Facilities
• All reported use of ICT on their website except
Nanaji Deshmukh Veterinary Science University,
Jabalpur and Kamdhenu University, Gandhinagar.
Both are newly formed Veterinary universities
which were founded as early as in the year 2009
• Almost all the universities reported that e-library
facility with CeRA and Krishiprabha were available
for students to help them with their academic and
research programmes

12. Facilities
• ICT used by all for recruitment and examination
notifications, time table and student registration
results, syllabus, Pre – Degree Certificate
• Only 2 colleges out of 20 colleges under study had
reported to be having IT budget but 13 had ET cells

13. Infrastructural Facilities
• An ideal student: teacher ratio of 10: 1
• One computer was available for 5 students
• The status of ICT use was comparatively better in
the state of Gujarat in terms of availability of
SMART classrooms and video conferencing facility.
This can be attributed to the internet speed was
much better in the universities of Gujarat as
compared to other states under study.
•

14. College website updating
30%
25%
20%
20%
5%
College website updating
daily Weekly fortnightly occasionally monthly

15. No domain e-mail id
• Almost half of the universities under study did not
have their domain mail id, still the teacher and the
taught were communicating with each other
through e-mails in majority of the universities
under study. SKUAST, Jammu in spite of having its
own domain id was using Gmail due to less space in
their domain id.

16. ICT Usage for administrative procedures
• SIS was found in 50% of the colleges
• Only 7 colleges out of 20 had staff biometrics and
only 02 had for students
• Only two states (M P and Rajasthan) had the facility
for students to pay their fees online

17. Were they using e-mails for
communicating?
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Yes
No
Percentage
Use of ICT for Communication purpose by higher authorities
Use of e-mails for Communication purpose
Institute management related tasks
Communicating online with teachers
Communicating online with parents
Communicating by emails with educational
authorities

18. 55%
25%
20%
Maintenance of ICT equipments
In-house Outsourced
Both

19. Some unique applications
• In AAU, Anand online admission process, Convocation,
Online Job Application and Online Email/Firewall Account:
as well as online courses at the university
• Online Tour Diary which is web based user interface
including all the activities like starting from create tour
programme to recommendation from authorized user.
• CCTV monitoring which was depicted by only MPUA&T,
Udaipur website whereas through personal contacts it was
found that AAU, Anand, JNKVV (Agriculture College,
Jabalpur) and RVSKVV (College of Agriculture, Indore)
were also having the same facility in the Dean’s room

20. Unique observations….
• Student/teacher ratio was as wide as 55: 1 in College of
Agriculture, Sumerpur and SKN College of ABM, Jobner.
• In Gujarat, almost all the colleges had digital report card
system whereas in M P, half of the colleges had digital
report card system in practice. The remaining two states;
Rajasthan and Jammu & Kashmir had no system of digital
report card in their universities.
• SKNAU, Jobner had the schedule of lectures taught on
their website.
• DIT in AAU

21. Recommendations
• Students should be trained how to use CeRA facility
and be given access to password upon registration.
It is recommended that the persons handling such
IT related cells should be computer professionals.
• IT budgeting and IT auditing should be done of all
the SAUs
• Colleges where there is dearth of teachers, virtual
classrooms should be promoted

22. Recommendations
• All Universities should have their domain e-mail ids and
that too with adequate space.
• There should be uniform guidelines for website designing
of all Agricultural Universities in the country
• E. T. Cells and SMART classrooms should be made available
to all the teachers
• Establishment of DIT in all SAUs & CCTV in all classrooms
• Teachers should be trained in the use of SMART classrooms
• Courses on ICT integration and information retrieval
should be an integral part of the curriculum in UG and PG
programmes

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