Hyderabad|India|July'2011: “I am thrilled. I could gather a lot of hands-on practical experience as a part of this vocational course. I received expert guidance and valuable tips on how to manage my own farm. This year, I won the ‘Best Maintenance of Individual plot’ prize for a small plot of land allotted to me as a part of the course,” said A Anjaneyulu, a student of Bayer- Ramanaidu Vignana Jyothi School of Agriculture (Bayer- RVJ School of Agriculture) who successfully completed the course. He was speaking at the fifth Convocation Ceremony of Bayer- RVJ School of Agriculture held on Monday.

Ulrich Meinecke, Counsellor, Social and Labour Affairs, Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany was the guest of honour at the event. Dr. D. Ramanaidu, President of Vignana Jyothi Executive Committee, Dr.Kakarla Subba Rao, former president of Vignana Jyothi, Dr. Kode Satyanarayana, Chairman, Advisory Committee, Dr. Arjun Rao, Director, C.V. Rao, Chief Administrator and some of the Board members of Bayer- RVJ School of Agriculture also spoke on the occasion.

Speaking at the Convocation, Ulrich Meinecke said “The six-month Farm Assistantship course in Agriculture is offering practical on-the-farm learning experience to students. Agriculture today, needs trained professionals at the field level. Students from Bayer- RVJ School of Agriculture can secure their future with the help of this course.”

“The Bayer – RVJ School of Agriculture was established as a part of Bayer CropScience overarching umbrella ‘Learning for Life’ strategy to foster (science) education globally as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility Programme,” said Joerg Rehbein, Country Head of Bayer CropScience, Indian Subcontinent in a statement.

The School is an initiative of the Child Care Programme, the first-of-its-kind social intervention model developed and successfully implemented in an industry with a farm-based supply chain that aims at getting children off the fields of contract farmers and into the school.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr. D. Ramanaidu, said “I am happy to know that 28 students of Bayer – RVJ School of Agriculture have successfully completed the six-month intensive Farm Assistantship course. As we have seen over the last few years, this course is opening many career options for rural youth in agriculture. Some of them are now managing their own family farms successfully.”

The School has become operational in the first quarter of 2008 and to date 104 students have graduated from this course. The Farm Assistantship course is offered free of charge to students in addition to placement assistance on completion of the course.

The school offers a six-month full time residential vocational training programme in agriculture. The course content covers topics such as an introduction to agriculture including basics in seed production techniques and principles of integrated crop protection. Plant diseases and their appearance on the fields are also tackled. A knowledge base in business administration including agricultural marketing, communication and awareness rising for teamwork forms an integral part of the curriculum as well. In addition, special guest lecturers are invited on selected topics.

The Faculty of this school includes distinguished academicians, members of the agricultural research community, scientists and guest lectures by Managers from Bayer CropScience Limited.

July.2011