Photo: Special Arrangement
GUWAHATI
Farmers who never went to school will now be able to study at a university in western Assam.
The Technology Incubation Centre in the State-run Bodoland University near Kokrajhar, about 220 km west of Guwahati, has designed a few short-term courses for unlettered farmers, students who dropped out, and rural entrepreneurs to upgrade and improve the rural economy.
The incubation centre is a Central project under the Department of Biotechnology of the Ministry of Science and Technology.
The courses are scheduled to start in August. One of these is the three-month certificate course in rural technology and advanced mushrooms developed for farmers who cannot read and write.
“Some of our farmers may not have gone to school but they have wisdom and practical knowledge. We came up with a course for such farmers because the absence of formal education or inadequate education should not be a constraint in acquiring knowledge,” Sandeep Das, the principal investigator at the incubation centre told The Hindu.
“The certificate course covers pearl cultivation, vermicomposting, gobar gas, areca nut plate-making, bio-floc fish culture, basic and advanced mushroom farming, value-added food production, plant tissue culture, bee-keeping, and other types of farming. We have seats for 30 farmers in the first batch,” Mr. Das said.
The university has kept the fee structure nominal and its corporate social responsibility partner may reimburse the fees of the first batch of farmers and returning students, rural youth and entrepreneurs who opt for the six-month diploma and the 12-month postgraduate diploma courses.
The last date for admission to these courses is July 5.
“The assessment of the course for the farmers will be different from conventional assessment,” Prof. Das said.
“We have started unique skill courses for farmers. We hope our endeavour will encourage other higher education institutes across the county to participate in the growth of farmers, particularly in tribal areas,” Bodoland University’s Vice Chancellor Babu Lal Ahuja said.
The Technology Innovation Centre, established in 2012, has been transferring know-how to farmers across the Bodoland Territorial Region, and gradually to other parts of Assam and the country beyond.
The centre has also been helping farmers from neighbouring countries, including Bhutan. It started with cultivating 21 species of mushrooms, especially the high-value Cordyceps, in laboratory conditions, and expanded to pearl cultivation, bio-floc fish culture, tissue culture, hydroponics, fog water harvesting, counselling, prebiotics, and other activities.