Solan-Dr YS Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni, has yet again been ranked among the top 100 Universities of the country in this year’s Ministry of Human Resource Development’s National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) 2019.

The university has been ranked at 80th position in the university category making it the only university in the top 100 from Himachal Pradesh. Only nine horticulture, agriculture and veterinary universities have found a place in this top 100 universities list.

However, UHF slipped from its last year’s rank of 71st position.

The rankings were released by the Hon’ble President Shri Ram Nath Kovind at New Delhi earlier on April 8, 2019. This year, the Ministry carried out rankings for Overall, Universities, Engineering, Colleges, Pharmacy and Management, Medical, Architecture and Law. The institutions were judged on parameters like Teaching, Learning and Resources, Research and Professional Practice, Graduation Outcome, Outreach and Inclusivity, and Perception with each having several other subheads.

In Research and Professional Practice, which includes Publications and the Quality of Publications, IPR and Footprint of Projects, and Professional Practice and Executive Development Programs, the university has improved its score from 5.81 in 2018 to 5.97 in 2019. Further, the university has also improved in the Perception parameter from 2.01 in 2018 to 2.41 this year. The university has also performed well in Graduation Outcomes and Teaching Learning and Resources.

Speaking at the event organized at the university on Thursday evening, Vice Chancellor Dr HC Sharma congratulated the scientists, staff and the students on being the highest ranked university in the state and among the select few from the agricultural field, which have made it to the top 100 list.

Stressing on the need to work harder to improve the rankings, Dr Sharma said,

We have improved our scores in the research and publications and perception, but there is still ample scope for improvement in all the parameters. In order to improve our rankings, we will be aggressively pushing our research and patent filing process and look to expand our international and national tie-ups for research and exchange.

He added that that the university has made several efforts under the technology transfer initiative and in the past few months several technologies developed by the university has been made available to the entrepreneurs. Dr JN Sharma, Director Research of the university explained the ranking methodology and called for making a collective effort to work on the areas where improvements can be made in the future.

Solan: The apiculture research centre of the Dr YS Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry (UHF), Nauni, has again bagged the ‘Best Research Center (2016-18)’ award. The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) confers the award every year.  This is the second year in a row that the centre has bagged this award.

 University’s Department of Entomology runs the Solan centre of the All India Coordinated Research Project on Honeybees and Pollinators AICRP (HB&P).

Scientists from 27 AICRP centres from across the country participated in the meet and presented their work. Three scientists from the UHF centre; Dr Harish Kumar Sharma, Dr Kiran Rana and Dr Meena Thakur also attended the meeting.

The Principal Investigator Dr Harish Sharma said that the centre is engaged in research in diversified aspects of apiculture including managed honeybee pollination, bee botany, bee breeding, honeybee disease identification and their management, and standardization of technology for hive products.

This is the only centre in the country where bumblebee rearing and its utilization in protected cultivation has been standardized.

he said.

Elaborating on the work done by the entomology department of the university, HOD Dr Divender Gupta told that the centre has been working for the overall upliftment of apiculture in the state with special emphasis on pollination management.

In addition, the centre has been providing specialized training on queen breeding and bee breeding to beekeepers from across the country including the north-east. 

In order to establish bee breeders, the scientists have been providing technical backup for production of quality queens for increasing honey production and pollination efficiency,

he added.

The award was given at the Biennial Group Meeting of AICRP (HB&P) organized by ICAR at the School of Agricultural Sciences and Rural Development, Nagaland University last week.

Dr PK Chakravarti, ADG ICAR conferred the award at the plenary session of the workshop in the presence of eminent apiculturist and former national coordinators of the AICRP (HB&P) Dr RK Thakur and Dr RC Mishra. Dr RK Thakur, who is currently serving as the Joint Director (Communication) at UHF also delivered the lead lecture during the event.

UHF VC Dr HC Sharma and Dean College of Horticulture Dr Rakesh Gupta congratulated the whole team for bringing laurels to the university.

Solan: The sixth bi-monthly meeting of the District Development Managers (DDM) of National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) began today at the Dr YS Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry (UHF), Nauni.

The Punjab Regional Office of the bank in association with the Directorate of Extension Education of the university organized the meeting.

Twenty-five DDM from Punjab attended the two-day meet and learnt about the possibilities of horticulture in their state from the university scientists. The meeting is part of the bank’s initiative to expose their officers to the advancements and opportunities in horticulture and allied disciplines so that they can promote the schemes associated with it among farmers.

During the meet, the university scientists will be addressing the participants on various topics and apprise them on the various activities being done by the university.

Dr Hari Sharma, UHF Vice-Chancellor; Dr Vijay Singh Thakur, Director Extension Education; JPS Bindra, CGM, Mithleshwar Jha, DGM along with the university scientists attended the inaugural session of the meeting.

Speaking on the occasion, JPS Bindra explained the working of NABARD and the role played by DDMs as the grassroots functionaries. While stressing on the need for diversification of agriculture, he said that area under horticulture and forestry in Punjab is quite less. Dr Vijay Singh Thakur, Director of Extension Education lauded the role played by NABARD in the upliftment of agriculture and infrastructural development. Dr Thakur was the view that there was a need to focus on the production of good quality food items.

Calling for making agriculture a respectable profession among the people especially the youth, Dr HC Sharma emphasized on involving modern technology to effectively communicate with the farmers. He said that there was a need for policy interventions for the planned utilization of agriculture produce for consumption and processing.  

He said that bank through its field officers should play a larger role in promoting simple interventions like solar drying of excess food produce and focus on producing export quality food products. Dr Sharma added that more efforts were required for the promotion of water conservation methods and maximizing the water use efficiency through modern farming technologies.

As part of the meeting, the delegates also attended technical lectures on hi-tech floriculture, natural farming and beekeeping and also visited the fields of the university.