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Innovations for the present and the future

by Dr. Ranjith Premalal de Silva

Education for wisdom has been the motto of the University of Peradeniya since its inception more than five decades back. It was primarily a bachelor's degree awarding institution.

Over time, Peradeniya University has expanded its horizons through the introduction of a wide range of training and education programs in order to cater to the needs of national education policy and national development agenda.

Until the mid nineteen seventies, postgraduate education opportunities were mainly restricted to a privileged group of the society. Formal, institutionalized postgraduate study programs were not available in the country. A considerable wealth of foreign exchange was spent on postgraduate studies for Sri Lankan students studying in foreign universities. The country was in dire need to institutionalize postgraduate education.

Centre of excellence

In this environment, the Postgraduate Institute of Agriculture (PGIA) was established in 1975 marking a new era in the Sri Lankan education system. The PGIA in terms of the University Act No. 9 of 1979, functions as an organization within the University of Peradeniya, under the direction and control of its Board of Management with a great degree of autonomy in its management. The institute is closely associated with the Faculty of Agriculture through 11 Boards of Study corresponding to all the major disciplines of agricultural sciences.

Over the years, PGIA has developed itself to be a centre of excellence in postgraduate education in Agriculture in the country as well as in the region.

It also acts as the pioneering institution in setting up quality and accreditation standards, offering a variety of comprehensive graduate level course packages, introducing innovative teaching and student evaluation approaches, establishing industry oriented research programs, disseminating knowledge to the society and developing the required human resource for the country and the region.

The PGIA has a team of outstanding academic staff to conduct lectures, practical and outreach activities of the degree programs.

The majority of the teaching staff is from the Faculty of Agriculture. In addition, the staff from the other faculties of the university, other universities, eminent personnel in the government departments, research institutes, corporations, corporate sector organizations are also invited to contribute in the teaching programs.

The diverse higher degree programs offered by PGIA cover broad areas of study, and includes plant sciences, crop and livestock production and improvement, agricultural economics and business management, agricultural extension, food science and technology, soil, water and other environmental sciences, plant protection, bio-statistics, agricultural and bio-systems engineering, and biotechnology.

In addition, the research agenda of the institute mainly focuses on the delivery of solutions to the production, processing and marketing problems as well as scientific methodology. Developing innovative, appropriate and cost effective technology for agriculture and related industries receives the highest prominence in the research priorities of the institute.

Most of the research activities are in collaboration with the relevant agencies and in consultation with policy formulation bodies such as Council for Agriculture Research Policy (CARP), National Science Foundation (NSF), and National Research Council (NRC). Further, the research findings are presented for comments and discussion at the Annual Congress of PGIA and the proceedings are published in the Journal 'Tropical Agriculture Research'.

Degrees and diplomas

The PGIA offers a wide range of postgraduate certificates and degrees to meet the individual and institutional needs. Postgraduate Diploma, Master of Science, Master of Business Administration, Master of Philosophy, Doctor of Philosophy and Doctor of Business Administration are the diplomas and degrees offered by the PGIA. In addition, discipline specific short courses and tailor-made study programs are also offered by the institute based on the needs and demands of clients.

In view of supporting capable students with poor financial background, in almost all disciplines, fully funded scholarships are offered to cover course fees, administration costs and living expenses. The institute's administration is endeavoured to negotiate with the donor agencies and also to seek state patronage to acquire financial and logistical support for the innovative teaching and management strategies of the institute.

Innovations for future

The often raised criticism that most of the university programs are not designed to cater for today's dynamic world and changing needs of the country cannot be levelled against the PGIA. In fact, the revision of the existing programs and the introduction of the new programs are aimed at offering the knowledge and the technology required for the present and the future.

The student admission procedure has been streamlined and an uniform basic competency level for all students is ensured with the introduction of the aptitude test as a prerequisite for gaining admission to the regular degree programs of the institute. A strict code of conduct for staff and students has been introduced to maintain institutional, academic and student discipline. All teachers are evaluated by students and a peer evaluation mechanism will be introduced in the near future.

A modern, fully equipped computer centre of the institute provides the opportunity to the students to experience a state-of-the-art computing environment. The computer hardware platform is constantly upgraded to provide the most recent versions of software products. Innovative teaching approaches are employed through use of multimedia technology and web based delivery of teaching materials.

Electronic transfer of teaching materials, student assignments and evaluations are encouraged. Most of the relevant teaching materials are published by the publication unit of the institute.

A massive collection of reading materials including journals, other periodicals, text books related to agricultural sciences is available in the library of the institute. Advanced informatics including Electronic index searching, e-abstract compilation, e-record keeping is available at the agriculture library. PGIA along with the Faculty of Agriculture is dedicated to develop the agriculture library to be the national centre for agricultural information.

To be on par with the global standards in academic teaching, the curriculum of the institute has been revised and offered on a semester based system incorporating novel concepts of information dissemination and student evaluation. Recent developments in the sphere of agricultural sciences and related disciplines have been introduced into the curriculum through a variety of new degree programs. Biotechnology, Tropical agriculture, Integrated water resource management are some of the recent additions to the PGIA degree programs.

Developments in biotechnology

The rapid development of global agricultural biotechnology has made it imperative that Sri Lanka establishes its own national programs which will require capacity building with appropriate training. The national centre for biotechnology named as Agriculture Biotechnology Centre was recently established in the university of Peradeniya to support national initiatives of biotechnology and related disciplines.

In view of this, the PGIA offers courses in biotechnology covering in-vitro techniques in gene cloning, DNA finger printing, bioindustry, biosafety and bioinformatics. New courses will be developed in molecular genetics, gene manipulation, recombinant DNA technology, and molecular biotechnology, pollination and breeding biology, crop genetic resources, evolution and speciation and biometrical genetics.

The degree program designed to provide knowledge in molecular microbiology constitutes with potential application in a wide range of areas such as pharmaceutical and food industry, environment protection, quality control, molecular diagnosis. The PGIA also provides training to students to solve applied microbiology problems using a molecular biology approach and produces industrially useful microbiologists with abilities in the improvement of microbial biotechnology. These courses are also aimed at developing skills in basic molecular microbiology needed for the improvement of biotechnology.

Water and agriculture

A special degree programme has been designed considering the national educational needs of the water sector and also aiming at expanding the education initiatives in the region Regional support and student enrolment are forthcoming for this multi-disciplinary and integrated water resource management program.

The courses have been designed to develop the knowledge and skills of students from a scientific, technological, economic, social and environmental perspective for integrated and sustainable use of water resources.

The integration of different disciplines are made to (a) assess, analyze and improve water resources, water allocations and hydro-ecosystems while developing methodologies to implement policies and legislature related to all aspects of water in the country, (b) to serve in effective communication and dialogue, conflict management and formulate awareness programs in managing water resources and water related issues, (c) to facilitate integrated research and development on water related sciences benefiting the students, stakeholders and the community while protecting the environment.

Tropical agriculture

A special degree program has been designed to provide a multidisciplinary production-oriented training in tropical agriculture to those who will be professionally active in the agricultural sector in the tropics. In this degree program, the students are exposed to many facets of tropical agriculture and environment, especially dry zone agriculture and opportunities are provided to work with farm families and commodity research institutes to acquire first hand experience in the area of tropical agriculture production.

Environmental soil science degree program is another addition to the new study programs where students are provided with opportunities to study the nature and behaviour of pollutants and contaminants in the soil system with special emphasis on pesticide and heavy metals, mitigating pollution and remediation techniques or contaminated soil.

Geo-Informatics and Spatial Sciences

Several courses related to advanced technologies in spatial sciences have been included in the course schedules. Satellite remote sensing for resource management, Geographical Information Systems (GIS) for natural resource management, Advanced GIS and Geo-Informatics, Spatial Statistics, GIS for Business Management are some of the recent introductions to the PGIA regular course programs. A Special M.Sc degree program has been proposed in the area of Geo-Informatics and Spatial Science covering the recent advances of space science and information technology.

Several certificate courses have also been offered to popularize these modern technologies in the industry.

Our expectations

In summary, innovations in academic teaching and research are introduced to the PGIA with the expectations of producing postgraduates who are capable of adapting to the rapidly changing environments to ensure sustained productivity of agriculture at present and in the future. This will ensure the food security of the nation. As an institute, the PGIA is aiming at achieving excellence as a centre for higher learning in the Asian region with mutually benefiting global links with institutions and industry, related to agriculture.

(The writer is the Secretary of the Board of Study in Agricultural Engineering and a member of the Coordinating committee & the Board of Management of the Postgraduate Institute of Agriculture.)

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