| Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Agricultural University Peshawar | |
|---|---|
| Established | 1981 |
| Type | Public |
| Students | 7000+ |
| Location | Peshawar, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan |
| Nickname | KPK AUP |
| Website | www.aup.edu.pk |
Agricultural University, Peshawer is a research-based Agricultural University in Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. The university is ranked as second best in agriculture after Agricultural University, Faisalabad.[1]
Contents
|
The history of Agricultural University can be traced to the College of Agriculture established in 1957 as a constituent college of the}. In 1974, the college became a Faculty of Agriculture under the University of Peshawar. It attained its autonomous status as Agricultural University, Peshawar in 1981.
The academic programs is divided into five faculties, each headed by a dean:
The university has three institutes: the Institute of Biotechnology and Genetics Engineering (IBGE), Institute of Business and Management Sciences (IBMS), and Institute of Development Studies (IDS).
The faculty has the following departments, each one headed by a separate chairperson.
The department was established in 1966 as the Department of Soil Science. Beyond limited resources and facilities, the department has produce 30 to 35 graduates each year before 1981 when the Department was readjusted, upgraded and reinforced. In 2001 it was renamed as Department of Soil & Environmental Science thus introducing environmental courses to increase the area of study. The department has three undergraduate, two postgraduate, two PhD-level and one advanced-research laboratories. The department has been successful in conducting research regarding crop productivity and solving the soil problems throughout the mainland of Pakistan.
The Horticulture Department is one of the biggest department in KPK Agricultural University, Peshawar with three main disciplines: Pomology, Olericulture Landscape and Ornamental Horticulture.
The Department practices insects, pests and disease control, counseling regarding day-to-day problems in the disciplines of horticulture. Currently one research project, related to guava propagation, is carried out in this department. A project of “Litchi Production in KPK” has been submitted to Pak-China joint research project. The Department has a 38-acre Horticulture Farm with 29 acres of commercial area under fruit plants, 1.5 acres commercial area under fruit nursery, one acre of mother plant garden and four acres of area specified for research. An ornamental plant nursery is used for student’s practicals, commercial purposes and beautification of the campus. Horticulture Department has two well-equipped laboratories.
Agronomy was the only major parent department when agriculture classes started back in 1933 at Islamia College, Peshawar. The department gave birth to several other agriculture colleges, then faculty in program serves all the students of the university. The graduate and postgraduate programs are Technology and Arid Zone Agronomy.
The Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics was established in 1963. Since then, it has been offering courses and research methodologies related to crop improvement, cytology, cytogenetics, biometry, quantitative genetics, molecular genetics and tissue culture, leading to B.Sc. (Hons) and M.Sc. (Hons) degrees. At present the department offers advanced courses and research guidance to PhD scholars. During the past 48 years, the department has produced more than 550 well-trained graduates and 22 PhD scholars, who have been serving organizations at provincial, national and international levels. Since its inception, students here have been awarded the maximum number of gold medals and other academic distinctions. At present the department has 163 enrolled students (undergraduate, graduate and PhD).
The department has nine highly qualified PhD and experienced faculty, well-equipped laboratories and a 30-acre experimental farm for research activities. During past five years, six faculty members have received post doctorate training in developed countries. The Department of Plant Pathology, Weed Science and Institute of Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering (IBGE) emerged from this department. In addition to academics, objective-oriented breeding programs are underway in wheat, maize, rice, pulses (mungbean and chick peas), cotton and oilseed crops at the department, which are funded by Pakistan Agricultural Research Council, Higher Education Commission and Ministry of Science and Technology. In addition, the department has established linkages program amounting Rs. 16.19 million sponsored by HEC for split PhD, joint research, joint faculty visit and organizing international symposia. Our faculty have completed 12 research projects amounting Rs. 15.79 million of these projects, eight projects were sponsored by HEC, three by PARC, and one each by PSF and AUP.
Despite the fact that 60% of the cultivable area in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is rainfed, there was no organized crop breeding program in the province for the target environment. Therefore, efforts are underway at the department to tailor the current crop cultivars for the rainfed regions of the province using the indigenous and exotic germplasm in the breeding programs. Similarly, research is in progress to evolve crop cultivars for cultivation in marginal land of the province. The first wheat cultivar "Ghaznavi-98" was released in 1998 by the wheat breeding program of the department headed by Prof. Dr. Fida Mohammad for cultivation in irrigated and rainfed regions of the province. A new wheat variety “JANBAZ” of this department was approved for commercial cultivation in Provisional Seed Council Meeting, held on November 11, 2010 under the chairmanship of Minister for Agriculture, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Government after fulfilling is codal formalities. New varieties of wheat and brassica are in advanced yield trials. These will be released for cultivation. Furthermore, the department has started winter maize production which is introduced in the province for the first time. In recent past, rice and cotton breeding programs have also been launched in the Department. About 50 metric tons of certified seed of wheat and maize is produced annually at the research farm of the department for distribution to the farmers and Agriculture Extension Wing.[2]
Related with the issues of modern technological shortcomings in agriculture education, the Department of Agricultural Mechanization was separated from the Department of Agricultural Engineering, College of Engineering in 1981 and shifted to the University of Agriculture Peshawar. The department offers graduation and post graduation courses in Engineering Application to Agriculture. As a substandard department of this university, the department is still under the process of reinforcement to achieve its objectives.
Department of Agricultural Chemistry
The Department of Human Nutrition was established in 1998, with the mission to impart quality education to students to undertake research in promoting health and nutrition of the population. It also aims to tackle the nutrition problems of the country through problem oriented research and nutritional programme. The scope of the Department includes promoting food security by increasing mass awareness through nutrition education and preventing malnutrition by conducting applied research activities. Though quality education, the Department is producing skilled graduates who play a vital role in reducing nutritional problems at the level of community and clinical settings. In addition, the department has been offering courses and research methodologies related to overall health improvement in malnutrition, macro-micro nutrient deficiency maternal, child, infant mortality, food security pre-and post surgery nutrition both in clinic and hospital etc. leading to B.Sc (Hons) and M.Sc (Hons) degrees. This department is also offering ad advanced courses and research guidance to Ph.D scholars.
In the past 35-years, the department has produced more that 200 well trained graduates, who have been serving various organizations at provincial, national and international levels. Since its inception, the Department has produced a number of gold medalist and other academi9c distinction holders. The department is also collaborating with other national and international research organizations to meet the requirements of the graduate students specially Ph.D students. Besides teaching, the department is also helping the health department KPK, Federal Health Ministry, Nutritional planning Cell Islamabad, UNICEF, WHO, FAO and different NGOs. The major emphasis of this department is bringing improvement in overall health of the population. The Department has highly qualified and experienced faculty, well equipped laboratory. The main focus of this institute is to produce nutrition qualified people to help the general masses and industry to improve the nutritional status of community and production of quality food.
Teaching Staff:
Department of Food Science and Technology
Food Science & Technology is the organized knowledge of applied courses covering subjects such as composition of food, the importance of food nutrients to human health, food analytical chemistry, sensory & microbiological techniques, principles of food preservation, food preparation & processing, food engineering, packaging & storage, food microbiology (food spoilage and their prevention techniques), quality control tests, safety & legislation management programme for food industries. This Department has three major laboratories and one processing hall for under-graduate and post graduate practical and research, well equipped with the latest models of equipments, classical apparatus and utensils (for physical, chemical, sensory, microbial analysis, processing of fruits & vegetables, meat and poultry etc.). Major areas of research are: post-harvest handling of fruits & vegetables, determination and elimination of anti-nutrients of leguminous and cereals products food additives and food components interaction, their determination, and inhibitions techniques, improvements in storage stability of food products with applications of individual or combined preservation techniques, packaging influence on the stability of food nutrients, development of new preserved food products by heating, low temperature canning, drying, radiation and food additives. Outreach activities include advisory services in the field of food science to the food producer, food processors, extension workers, and scientists.
Teaching Staff:
Department of Human Nutrition
The Department of Human Nutrition was established in 1985 with the mission to impart quality education to students and to undertake research in promoting health and nutrition of the population. It also aims to tackle the nutrition problems of the country through problem oriented research and nutritional programme. The scope of the department includes promoting food security by increasing mass awareness through nutrition education and preventing malnutrition by conducting applied research activities. Through quality education, the Department is producing skilled graduates who play a vital role in reducing nutritional problems at the level of community and clinical settings.
The Department has well-equipped laboratory facilities, capable of undertaking biochemical analysis of food, blood and urine samples for micro and macronutrients. Currently the Department has received a number of state of the art equipment for carrying out research activities of the Department. The Department has strong research collaboration with national and international institutions. There is a very good stock of nutrition books, journals, and periodicals in the Central Library. The Department has got national and international recognition where both students and faculty enjoy the benefits of mutual collaboration.
It has well-qualified and trained faculty. Most of the teaching staff have doctoral degrees from abroad and are fully expert in specialized areas. The Department has sufficient enrollment of students in master and doctoral degrees. Similarly the department has established good working relationships with public and private hospitals of the country where students get their practical training through a 12-week internship program.
Teaching Staff:
The faculty offers a five-year bachelor degree programme for DVM (Doctor of Veterinary Medicine).
IBMS offers graduation courses in Computer Science, Information Technology and Business Administration. Postgraduate courses are available in Business Administration only at IBMS.
Both departments offer a four-year graduation programme. Masters and doctorate degree programmes are available at the Department of Biotechnology.