Department Of Agricultural Biotechnology

The Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Ministry of Science & Technology, Govt. of India sanctioned a PG Education programme leading to M.Sc. (Agri) degree programme in Agricultural Biotechnology in the year 1988. Consequently a special programme was started under the Department of Plant Breeding & Genetics in February 1989 with an intake of 6 (six) students. Later on the intake capacity was increased to 10 (ten) and a separate department viz. “Department of Agricultural Biotechnology” was established in 1996. The department admits student having completed 4 year B.Sc. (Agri) degree course after conducting an entrance test which is open to students from all over India. From 2008 onwards the post-graduate degree being offered by the department has been renamed as M.Sc. (Agri) in Biotechnology.

At present 2 (two) different programs are being supported by DBT in the Department of Agricultural Biotechnology. One is the PG Education programme as mentioned above and the other is a Sub-Distributed Information Center (Previously known as BTIS user center). The Sub-DIC is a part of the BTIS (Biotechnology Information System) Network of DBT which covers the whole of India and its main activity is to provide information support to the teaching and research community of the institution in particular and the region in general. Presently a lot of emphasis is also being given on bioinformatics related research in the programme.