College Of Horticulture, Solan

About College Of Horticulture, Solan

The College of Horticulture came into existence with the establishment of Dr Y S Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry on December 1, 1985, but it has its origin in the erstwhile Himachal Agriculture College and Research Institute, Solan established in 1962, with affiliation to the Punjab University, Chandigarh. The need for such a college arose from the basic consideration that the agro-climatic conditions of hills differ greatly from those of the plains and that the human resource trained in a college located in hills will have better understanding and exposure to hill agriculture, and will prove more useful for its development. The college was raised to the status of a postgraduate college in 1965 when MSc Agriculture programme was introduced in some subjects. Later in 1968, the Punjab University, Chandigarh recognized this institution for doctoral research. However, with the reorganization of the state of Punjab and consequent merger of its hilly areas in Himachal Pradesh, the enlarged state established the Himachal Pradesh University, Shimla in July 1970. The colleges of Agriculture at Solan and Palampur the latter formerly part of the Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana together with research stations under the control of these colleges, formed the Agriculture Complex of Himachal Pradesh University, Shimla. The Agriculture Complex of Himachal Pradesh University was raised to a full-fledged university named Himachal Pradesh Krishi Vishvavidyalaya HPKV at Palampur, renamed as Chaudhary Sarwan Kumar Krishi Vishvavidyalaya, in November 1978, with one of its campuses at Solan. Subsequently the Solan campus along with the horticultural research stations under its control was designated as Horticultural Complex. During 1974, an area of 542ha was acquired at Nauni, where infrastructure was created for the Solan campus. The Solan campus of HPKV was elevated to full-fledged university on December 1, 1985 through Act No. 4 of 1987 passed by the Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly and assented to by the Governor of Himachal Pradesh on 6th February 1987. The College of Agriculture was renamed as the ‘College of Horticulture’. The College of Horticulture constitutes one of the two colleges in the new University dedicated to Dr Y S Parmar, the first Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh, under the name Dr Yashwant Singh Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Solan.

The teaching programme in the college evolved gradually from annual to trimester and then to semester system. At present, the college follows the course credit system of education under semester system. The curriculum is divided into a number of courses offered by different departments, and the academic year is divided into two semesters each of 20 weeks with short duration summer and winter breaks of 6 weeks each. The evaluation under semester system was internal up to 1998 at undergraduate as well as postgraduate level. Later, after the implementation of Third Deans’ Committee of the ICAR recommendations for undergraduate education in the country, the evaluation system was made external to the extent of 50% at undergraduate level with effect from the academic year 1998-99. However, the recommendations of the IV Deans’ Committee of the ICAR have been implemented in the University and the entire course curriculum of the undergraduate degree has been revised and rescheduled. A student has to secure 50% marks to pass a course and an OGPA of 5.50 on a 10-point scale for becoming eligible for graduate degree. However, the course curricula at postgraduate level have not yet been changed, but will also be revised and rationalized as per the recommendations released recently. For the present, postgraduate students are evaluated internally and a PG student has to obtain 55% marks to pass a course and to acquire an OGPA of 6.50 on a 10-point scale to become eligible for M Sc or Ph D degree.