ASSOCIATION OF ALUMNI OF RANCHI AGRICULTURE COLLEGE

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Introduction

Ranchi Agriculture College (RAC) was established at Ranchi, as the second Agricultural College of Bihar, India in the year 1955. The first such institution was Bihar Agriculture College established in 1945 at Sabour in the district of Bhagalpur, Bihar. Ranchi Agriculture College was established to cater the needs of the state for the different agricultural scenario of the plateau region as compared to the Bihar plains, such as hilly terrain, drought prone with absence of perennial rivers, small farm holdings, large tribal population, and low farm productivity in major parts due to rainfed cultivation. Later on, two state Agricultural Universities were established, one at Pusa (Rajendra Agricultural University, Bihar) in 1971 and the other at Ranchi (Birsa Agricultural University, Jharkhand -www.bauranchi.org) in 1981 to provide the necessary facilities to promote teaching, research and extension activities in the fields of Agriculture, Veterinary Sciences and Animal Husbandry and Forestry. Ranchi Agriculture College (RAC), is part of the Birsa Agricultural University, BAU, Jharkhand, and is located in Kanke, Ranchi; which is 8 Kilometers from downtown Ranchi and 17 Kilometers from the Ranchi Airport. RAC is a premier institution of the Jharkhand region offering both undergraduate and postgraduate programs in multiple disciplines, apart from conducting Research and transferring the technologies to the farmers through extension activities.

The main objective behind the establishment of this College was:

To build a sound foundation for Agricultural sciences in the state & the country.
To create trained human resources for academic,research and extension activities in various fields of Agriculture.
To promote science based professional skills among the farming community for improving crop productivity and farm profits.

To achieve the above objectives, undergraduate and postgraduate students admitted each year are trained on different subjects of Agricultural Sciences, such as Soil Science, Plant Breeding & Genetics, Plant Pathology, Entomology, Agro Meteorology & Environmental Science, Agricultural Extension, Agricultural Economics, Agricultural Engineering, Horticulture etc. The students on completion of their studies join services under the state Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Universities, Banking sector, Fertilizer industry, Private firms, N.G.O.s etc.

The first batch of students graduated from RAC in 1958. Since then, every year students graduate and obtain undergraduate and postgraduate degrees. The Alumni of RAC, (subsequently of the Birsa Agricultural University), are spread all over the globe; some of them occupying/occupied fairly high responsible positions within the country and outside.

Birth of ARAC

On several occasions, the Alumni of RAC had met and realized the importance of an Association of their own and for a formal Annual meet. The Alumni of 1961 batch were more active in crystallizing the idea of having an Association. However, as per Dr. K.K. Sahay, 1961 batch (article published in ARAC-2016 Souvenir)” it is difficult to believe that the idea of having an annual meet/get together of RAC graduates came around September 2002 at Niagara Falls, USA” There he met his batch mate, Dr. Shyamalendu Sarkar, serving as Chairman of Agricultural Economics Division of Saginaw University, Michigan, USA and discussed about it. Dr. Sahay discussed the matter with some of his batch mates and a couple of seniors, located at Ranchi and Delhi. Subsequently the idea crystallized into action in the first formal meeting of Alumni of Ranchi Agricultural College was held in the auditorium of RAC on December 28, 2003 under the presidentship of the former Dean of RAC, Dr. A.K. Sarkar. During the meeting, Late Sri Priya Nath Verma (1960) and Sri Birendra Prasad (1961) were requested to draft the rules and regulations for ARAC and try for its registration during 2006 for its proper functioning. Late Sri Verma finalized the draft Constitution after thorough discussion with senior members of ARAC and critical scrutiny and incorporation of valid suggestions. This was adopted by the General Body meeting of the Alumni on November 20, 2008, where in Dr. M.A. Mohsin, Dr. Kishore Kumar, Sri Ranoj Dasgupta, Sri Ashok Kumar, Late Dr. Ashok Kumar Mitra, Sri Birendra Prasad and few other Alumni (mostly from 1961 batch) very actively participated. Finally, the Association became a formal legal body with Registration No. 617 on November 11, 2009, in terms of Registrar General of Cooperatives, Government of Jharkhand. Since then the RAC Alumni meet is being organized every year with exception of two years in between. The 9th Alumni meeting was organized on a grand scale by the sitting President, Dr. Abdul Wadood, on February 27-28, 2016. In 2018, Dr. Wadood successfully organized the 10th Alumni meet on February 24th and 25th 2018.

During this meeting on February 24th Dr. Sarkar suggested adding two new tabs – “Counseling’ and “Publications” to the Alumni website, which were added. The counseling tab aims to provide job search assistance to BAU graduates and publication page will be a reference page for important lectures and publications related to Agriculture. Alumni are encouraged to submit their papers to Admin for posting at website. The instructions are provided on the page.

The need for ARAC Website

An Alumnus of 1966 batch, Dr. B K. Singh, developed a website for ARAC which was linked to his professional firm, Weather Sys in 2015. However, in spite of the fact that there are several websites available for free on the Internet, where any alumnus of any institution can register there was no website of our alumni of its own, similar to those of other technical institutions. During the last meeting of General Body, it was decided that the Alumni of Ranchi Agriculture College (ARAC) should have its own website. The responsibility was to design and develop a website of ARAC, which would enable an Alumnus to freely register and search for their colleagues, seniors and juniors, based on the last name or the year of graduation. This was given in the last meeting to Shafiq Mallick (76) to be assisted by Shailendra K. Fauji (76), Mahesh C. Pathak (77) and Susmita Shrivastava (97). ARAC members are encouraged to give suggestions for improvement to this website.

Location and Agro-Climatic Regions of Jharkhand

Ranchi Agriculture College, a part of Birsa Agricultural University (BAU), Jharkhand and the state of Jharkhand, is located at Kanke, Ranchi and covers the following agricultural regions: