NAHEP CAAST: Bringing excellence through fostering linkages between frontier sciences and industry

Abstract

NAHEP is designed to strengthen the national agricultural education system in India with overall objective to provide more relevant and high quality education to agricultural university students. This programme has been promoting efficiency and competitiveness through changes in working mechanism of agricultural universities, raising the teaching and research standards through improved research and teaching infrastructure and enhanced faculty competency and commitments, and making agricultural education more attractive to talented students. There are four key components under NAHEP, namely; Institutional Development Plan (IDP), Centres for Advanced Agricultural Sciences and Technology (CAAST), ICAR to support excellence in agricultural universities (AUs), and ICAR Innovation Grants to AUs. It is envisaged that improved AU performance through quality enhancement, better employment and entrepreneurship opportunities created for agriculture graduates, non-accredited AUs attaining ICAR accreditation, and institutional reforms implemented in education division of ICAR and AUs under these components together shall contribute to the achievement of the overall program objective. About Centres for Advanced Agricultural Science and Technology Under this component, select accredited AUs have been awarded projects for the establishment of Centres for Advance Agricultural Science and Technology (CAAST). These Centres would be multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary in nature for teaching, research and extension on critical and emerging issues of agriculture. Like other components of NAHEP, the selection process of CAAST projects has been made on the basis of competition and performance. The key provisions for funding under CAAST include research and teaching equipment, faculty and scientist development fellowships, postgraduate student scholarships, and the costs associated with twinning arrangements with similar centers both nationally and internationally. The investments under CAAST component contribute more towards enhancing the relevance of the teaching and research. The focus of CAAST hinges upon development of multidisciplinary faculty, innovative approaches to teaching and research, technology development and commercialization. The holistic approach to teaching and research for agriculture and rural development would be building capacities in a specialized thematic area and cutting-edge agricultural science and make AUs globally competitive and locally relevant. High emphasis on industry orientation of agricultural science and technology generation system through strengthened association and partnership will be laid under this component. It is envisaged that the support and efforts under CAAST would strengthen agricultural higher education with better employment and entrepreneurship opportunities for agriculture graduates. The activities and research achievements of the AUs under CAAST are spread over a number of thematic areas such as Conservation Agriculture, Precision farming / Farm Mechanization, Secondary Agriculture, Specialty agriculture, Renewable Energy Sources, Integrated Farming System (IFS), Agriculture Market Intelligence, Good Agricultural Practices, Hitech/Protected Cultivation, Climate Resilient Agriculture, Food Safety, Big Data Analysis and Genomics-assisted Breeding