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As India is highly dependent on agriculture for its growth and major population of it being involved in agriculture, the presence of an Agricultural University becomes imminent. This would help in creating experts in the field of agriculture and also it's allied fields which in turn would help in bettering the status of the agricultural community. The emergence of Kerala Agricultural University has given a huge boost to this sector.

• It was established in the year 1971 by the Kerala State Legislature via its Act 33 of 1971 with the title “The Agricultural University Act, 1971”
• The university started functioning from February 1972 and the previous institutes which were under the Government of Kerala were brought under this university.
• Initially, two educational departments and 21 research institutions were under the administration of Agriculture & Animal Husbandry of the Kerala Government
• The KAU is Kerala’s premier institution in imparting a high level of technical education and developing skills to improve the technique of agriculture, animal husbandry, fishing and the likes.
• It has the jurisdiction over the whole State of Karnataka and dedicates itself completely to commit to the mandate it has been given
• The campus is beautifully located in the Thrissur district at Vellanikkara having a position of almost being at the center of the state.
• It is easily accessible by any mode of transport be it rail, air or road and the Thrissur Railway station is only 13 kilometers from it
• The university is about 50 kilometers from the Kochi International Airport
• The prime aim behind the inception of this university was to prepare resources for a sustainable and fast development of agriculture.
• The infrastructure is of the highest stature of the university and probably amongst the best agricultural institutions in the country.

Research

Being an agricultural university, KAU emphasizes greatly on the research works that could be done to improve the knowledge and skills of the students who in turn could pass them on to the farmers. Many national and international agencies provide funding to the research projects. They are:

• Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)
• Department of Biotechnology (DBT)
• Department of Science and Technology (DST)
• Board of Research in Nuclear Science and such others

The several faculties of the university have done a number of research projects under these agencies. Few might be mentioned as:

• Post-Harvest studies on Processed Products made from Mango and Papaya
• Exploitation of hypo-virulence in Rhizoctoniasolani Kuhn for sheath blight disease suppression and growth promotion in rice
• An Assessment of Stressed Ecosystems of Thrissur
• Introduction of Cage system in Egg Production in the homesteads
• Design and Development of equipment for threshing, cleaning, and grading of Black Pepper
• Formulation of Low-Cost Animal Feeds using feedstuffs available in Rural Areas of Kerala
• AICRP on Energy requirements in Agriculture sector and many such projects.

Extracurricular Activities

With such variety of courses being provided and amazing opportunities to shape their career in the line of agriculture, the students at KAU are also encouraged to participate in various other activities like:

• National Cadet Corps
• National Service Scheme
• Sports tournaments
• Organizing various cultural events

There are a wide variety of activities that the students can engage them in while they are in the university.

• Inter-collegiate tournaments
• Inter-university tournaments
• Arts festivals
• Cultural festivals and competitions

Facilities

Library

The Kerala Agricultural University takes pride in having a grand library on its campus that provides unmatched help to the staff and students and scholars as well.

• The library is equipped with state of the art amenities like IT services and e-resources and so on
• There is the presence of an Electronic Library as well which has the distinction of being the first of its kind for any agricultural university in India
• The Central Library has a huge assortment of books, journals and all other types of references that are needed by the students
• Apart from that, there are separate college libraries that to have a good collection of useful resources
• Journals, periodicals, magazines, these papers etc. are available in abundance in all these libraries.

Auditorium

The 800 seated fully air-conditioned Central Auditorium in the Main Campus equipped with one of the finest acoustic systems and an Indoor Stadium at Vellayani campus add to the basic infrastructure for the full development of the potentials of the students and the faculty in the Main Campus

Award

• The Kerala Agricultural University is winning the Performance Award of ICAR for the fifth time in a row. The KAU has been standing national first ever since 2007. Earlier, KAU had won the first position in 2005 & 2002 and third position in 2006
• The award is given for winning the most number of Junior Research Fellowships (JRF) by KAU students in the national level competitive examination conducted during 2011
• Won the National Best KVK Award -2009 from among the 589 KVKs in the country
• It got the Sardar Patel Outstanding ICAR Institution Award in 2003
• In the All India Competitive Exams also KAU stood first