8230; gets a low-down on PAU

Harvey L Hall, Mayor of Bakersfield, California visited Punjab Agricultural University on Thursday. During an interaction with Dr Manjit Singh Kang, Vice-Chancellor, PAU and officers of the University, he sought to know about Punjab agriculture and Punjab Agricultural University.

Harvey L Hall, Mayor of Bakersfield, California visited Punjab Agricultural University on Thursday. During an interaction with Dr Manjit Singh Kang, Vice-Chancellor, PAU and officers of the University, he sought to know about Punjab agriculture and Punjab Agricultural University. The team is on a Punjab visit regarding establishing a city of Amritsar at Bakersfield.

Dr Kang gave a synoptic view of the organisational set up of PAU. He said that PAU was established in 1962 on the Land Grant Pattern with technical support from Ohio State University, USA and informed that the two institutions held strong ties till date. Informing about the student-strength, Dr Kang said the university had some 1,800 students of which almost 50 were girls. The regular alumni meets helped PAU to keep record of students8217; success in different fields of their profession. Dr Kang said that Bakersfield and Punjab had a lot of common ground in agriculture.

Introducing his city, Hall informed that Bakersfield was the 11th largest city in California that had only single digit unemployment rate indicating its business prosperity. He interacted with the participating officers of PAU on various issues concerning agriculture such as the role of women in agriculture, strength of international students at PAU, evaluation of student success, supporting agricultural ventures, etc.

Dr S.K. Mann highlighted the PAU8217;s initiative towards vocationalisation of education. She elaborated on the integrated curricular programmes operative at PAU. Responding to the query of Hall about practical aspects of agricultural education, Dr M.S. Aulakh, Dean College of Agriculture, said that under 8220;Earn while you learn8221; scheme for students, a piece of land is allotted to them where they could grow a crop during the final year of their study and thereby earn profit.

Similarly, he highlighted about a new programme, which is being started with an accent on experiential learning in areas such as mushroom growing, tissue culture, bee-keeping etc., for which PAU would pay for internship during the eighth semester. Dr Kang presented Hall with a memento, a set of publications and a docket of PAU brochures.