Agricultural College and Research Institute

The foundation stone for the Madras Agricultural College and Research Institute was laid in Coimbatore on 24th September, 1906 by the then Governor of Fort St. George, Sir Arthur Lawley. Students were first admitted into the Agricultural College at Coimbatore in 1908 for an educational programme leading to Licentiate in Agriculture (L.Ag.). The Agricultural College and Research Institute was opened by Sir Arthur Lawley on July 14, 1909. In 1920, the college was affiliated to the Madras University and a new course of study leading to a degree in Agriculture, B.Sc. (Ag.) was introduced and the first batch came out in 1923. To start with, only eight students were admitted for the three year degree course, the qualification for admission being a pass in the Intermediate examination with 11 years of study in school and two years of Intermediate before entering the Agricultural College, thus bringing the total duration of study for an Agricultural graduate to 16 years. The number of students admitted to the college gradually increased from eight in 1920 to forty eight in 1926. The Agricultural College at Coimbatore was separated from the Research Institute in 1922 and a separate building was erected for hosing the Agricultural College. This building called ?Freeman Building?. The foundation stone for the Freeman building was laid on June 30, 1922 by the Governor of Madras, Lord Wellington of Ratton and was opened in July 1926 by Viscount Goschen of Hawkhurst, the then Governor of Madras. The Second World War brought in problems of shortage in food and clothing and inorder to an adequate number of trained agricultural personnel well equiped for tackling the program chalked out under the Post-War Reconstruction schemes. The admission to the Agricultural College was fuerther raised from 48 to 96 in 1944 and 96 to 108 in 1953 and again from 108 to 162 from the year 1956. In 1942, research and teaching sections were integrated. A second Agricultural College was started in 1945 at Bapatla (now in Andhra Pradesh) and a third college in 1965 at Madurai to cope with the vast expansion and intensification of agricultural activities in Tamil Nadu. A Postgraduate Diploma course in Horticulture of one year duration was started under the auspices of the Madras Government (Agriculture Department) which was affiliated to the Madras University in 1953. The course was intended primarily to train the agricultural graduates employed already in Government sections of Horticulture. The course was discontinued from 1957. A four year integrated B.Sc. (Ag.) course was started when the one year Pre-University course came into existence in 1960 thus maintaining the total duration at 16 years for first Graduation in Agriculture.