Can Nagaland have its own Central Agriculture University?

Dimapur, SEPTEMBER 6 : It would appear that Nagaland’s faltering attempts over the years to persuade New Delhi into establishing a Central Agriculture University (CAU) here in the state has been provided with a small window of opportunity. It is rather a long shot – but it nevertheless represents an opening.

Since the 1980s, Naga agriculturists, scholars and researchers involved in agriculture science have been trying to convince successive state governments to establish a CAU here in Nagaland. But back then, the state government wanted a “general central university” instead of a CAU.

“It was a political decision. They (state government) thought that a general university will benefit the state more than a CAU. That is how the Nagaland University was established at Lumami and the CAU was given to Imphal (in Manipur)”, a senior academician told Eastern Mirror recently.
Nagaland University was established by an Act of Parliament in 1989, though it became functional only in 1994. On the flipside, the Central Agricultural University Act, 1992 did not include the state of Nagaland. It was only on August 9 this year that the Lok Sabha passed a bill to include Nagaland under the authority of the Central Agriculture University (CAU) in Imphal.

This backdrop is important because Nagaland has been witnessing a renewed campaign to have its own CAU recently.

While the reasons are many, the latest campaign appears to be stirred by the establishment of a Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry College at Jalukie last month.

Under the current regulations, the Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry College at Jalukie would function under the authority of CAU, Imphal. This arrangement, according to the Naga Hoho, “is not at all feasible for obvious reasons.” The “obvious reasons” are political, geographical and cultural in nature.

And thus, the Naga Hoho has echoed the voice of the Naga agriculturists calling for the establishment of a CAU in Nagaland. It has even asked the Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Radha Mohan Singh to allow the newly established college at Jalukie function under its own CAU and not under any other state.

Reportedly, they were told by the minister that Nagaland must first establish three more institutes – College of Horticulture, College of Forestry and College of Fishery – in order to install its own CAU. This, however, has been contested.

There are also apprehensions in certain quarters that in the current arrangement the intake of students as well as human resources from the state will be minimal because it will be shared with the other states.

According to some senior agriculturists and academicians that Eastern Mirror spoke to, the CAU could be established even without those three institutes. The only thing that is actually needed is the “political will” of the state government, according to them.

A highly reliable source informed Eastern Mirror that one of the officials from the Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, who came accompanying the Union Minister’s visit to Nagaland last month, let it slip that there was a small window of opportunity for Nagaland now.

According to this official, the only way that Nagaland could have its own CAU was for the Chief Minister to convince Prime Minister Modi of the same. “Then there will be no problem and everything will be clear,” he was quoted as saying.

The Nagaland University Teachers’ Association of the School of Agricultural Sciences and Rural Development (SASRD) have also submitted a memorandum to the Union Minister. It was a proposal to establish a central “University of Hill Agriculture and Technology” in Nagaland.

In the proposal, the teachers have submitted a detailed presentation reasoning that the existing facilities at SASRD Medziphema campus could be used as a foundation for establishing the proposed University.

“Presently, the School of Agricultural Sciences and Rural Development, which is following the ICAR (Indian Council of Agricultural Research) system of agricultural education, is constraint of desired development for the fact that it is under a general UGC system of education.

However, it has all the basic facilities catering to the needs of human resource development not only for the state but also for the region.

“The School already has in place the requirements and mechanisms to facilitate the growth of agricultural education in Nagaland. Hence, a full-fledged Central University can be established in the state, where the available facilities in SASRD can form a catalyst and a foundation,” reads a portion of the proposal.

This is at least the seventh or eighth proposal that the teachers have written.

But they simply are functionaries of the existing general university. The real push must come from the state government, they reasoned. “It is the state government who should pursue it, with the necessary seriousness and political will.”