Hyderabad: In alliance with Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai and International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Topics (ICRISAT), Hyderabad, the National Virtual Academy for Indian Agriculture has started commissioning of online courses on diseases pertaining to horticultural crops and their administration.
The course stretches over duration of 2 consecutive months from 30thNovember to 29thJanuary. The project is initiated by a taskforce of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) experts in agriculture and educationalists from International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Topics (ICRISAT) under the influence of an adroit supporter, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay.
"Complementing on our Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi's dream project of Digital India that strives to promote quality education to every last junction of the society, our fingers are crossed to witness the launch of Massive Open Online Course's (Part-2) in our country, which enables to provide high level education opportunities to deserving candidates from India" were the words of Dr David Bergvinson, current Director General of ICRISAT.
"The syllabus has been meticulously deliberated and established by qualified agricultural professionals who gave away their precious time for the upliftment of massive number of students on agricultural front" told Dr SumanthKumar, Scientist- ICT for development, ICRISAT.
The part- version shall be accountable to unveil various aspects of causes, distribution, symptoms and supervision of syndromes relating to substantial horticultural crops along with its economic prominence. Even this course could be used as an auxiliary study material for current semester course called 'Diseases of Horticultural crops and their management' an official statement from a reliable source from ICRISAT.
NVAIA was the first organization to successfully execute Massive Open Online Course in Agriculture. The part- 1 of the free online course which was publicized on 2nd February came to an end on 27th April under the supervision of Professor MS Swaminathan, the founder of Indian Green Revolution and Emeritus chair of MSSRF, an evolving Research Foundation. Around 900 entries from across the country were registered on the onset of the online program. Candidates beholding school certificates to graduation degrees participated briskly in this promisingly exultant campaign.