Although they continue to be adamantly unresponsive, every year since 2020 EducationWorld has been eliciting expert opinion to rate and rank government agricultural universities countrywide.

Since 2020 thousands of farmers have been periodically protesting countrywide, demanding legally guaranteed minimum support prices for agriculture produce. These protests of the neglected rural majority have struck a chord within the urban intellegentsia if not the academy. Political pundits and economists — including your editors (see https://www.educationworld.in/indias-colonisation-of-bharat-liberating-rural-india/) — have been – even if somewhat belatedly, suggesting ways and means to cut India’s 1 billion-strong rural citizens a fairer deal.

However there’s been a deafening silence from the apex-level Delhi-based Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR), an ‘autonomous body’ promoted by the Central government way back in 1929 to “coordinate agricultural education and research” countrywide. Unsurprisingly affiliated 113 ICAR institutes and 74 government agriculture universities spread across the country have also had little to say about this burning issue.

Forget about burning public issues, over the past 95 years ICAR and its affiliated institutions have developed a culture of not being answerable to the media or the public which funds the council’s Rs.10,000 crore annual budget. The 113 ICAR institutes and 74 government agriculture universities defined by huge establishment expenses, rock-bottom tuition fees and large mysteriously spent research budgets, are accountable only to their political masters. In recent years, they have substantially reduced extension work and connect with rural communities and farmers. Consequently, modernisation of Indian agriculture has become a huge national blind spot with the great majority of the country’s farmers steeped in obsolete farming practices. Little wonder that average wheat and rice yields in India are a fifth of China and a tenth of France and Ukraine.

Nevertheless, every year since 2020 EducationWorld has been eliciting expert opinion to rate and rank government agricultural universities. Last year, India’s #1 ranked agriculture university — ICAR, Delhi — didn’t respond to our several emails and phone calls to share the mysterious secrets of their public service. Ditto this year.

Following ICAR, Delhi in the 2024-25 EW league table of India’s best government agriculture universities is the state government-promoted Punjab Agricultural University, which has retained its #2 rank of 2023-24. However, further down the 14-strong league table of reputed agriculture universities, the 2,100 knowledgeable respondents comprising higher education faculty, students and industry representatives polled by AZ Research Partners Pvt. Ltd, have voted for change.

Navsari Agricultural University (Gujarat), ranked #4 in 2023-24, has inched up to #3. Ditto ICAR — National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal which is promoted to #4. Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture & Technology, Pantnagar (Uttarakhand) is ranked #5 (#4) and Junagadh Agricultural University (JAU) is promoted to #6 (#7) jointly with the Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar (#5).

The Top 10 table is completed by ICAR — Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Izatnagar, Bareilly at #7 (#6), University of Agricultural Sciences, Bengaluru at #8 (#8), Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore at #9 (#7) and Anand Agricultural University at #10 (#8) jointly with the Sardarkrushinagar Dantiwada Agricultural University, Banaskantha (#9). Never heard of these institutions? Blame their babus innocent of elementary marketing and communication.

On the other hand, Dr. Z.P. Patel, the media-friendly Vice Chancellor of Navsari Agricultural University (NAU), Gujarat, is pleased that the 20-year-old state government varsity is ranked #3 countrywide with high scores under the parameters of competence of faculty, leadership, industry interface, placements and range/diversity of programmes. “NAU’s #3 India rank will boost the confidence of our faculty and students and provide much needed visibility to the university’s numerous excellent initiatives. NAU and its eight constituent colleges are accredited by the National Agricultural Education Accreditation Board of ICAR, Delhi and for the past four years consecutively we have been awarded 4 star rating by the Government of Gujarat,” says Dr. Patel.

Although Dr. Patel is appreciative that survey respondents have awarded NAU a high score for industry interface, he believes the university deserves a higher score under the parameter of research and innovation. “At NAU, we accord top priority to agricultural research. We have established 25 research centres in 15 sites which are doing groundbreaking work on mandate crops viz, paddy, sugarcane, cotton, sorghum, small millets, mango, banana, sapota and vegetables. Since inception, NAU has developed more than 114 crop varieties and 728 technologies which have received international attention. Recently we signed an MoU with Accrued Gains Pvt. Ltd, Botswana and Novel Holding Inc, USA for the commercial scale production of a banana pseudostem-based organic liquid nutrient branded NOVEL. We are also very proud of our extension services provided by five Krishi Vigyan Kendras which have organised 30,000 activities including seminars/workshops and 70 agricultural exhibitions and fairs for farmers. More recently, NAU has developed a Kisan Mitra mobile app to disseminate information about agricultural practices to over 50,000 farmers. We are determined not to rest on our laurels,” adds Patel.

ICAR, Delhi and other publicly funded agriculture universities need to take lessons in institutional pride and accountability from NAU and Dr. Patel.