Agricultural College students

Agricultural College, Bapatla is the oldest Agricultural college in Andhra Pradesh. It is established in the year 1945.

• Campus Building
• Community College

The Agricultural College, Bapatla owes its inception much to the earnestness and dynamism of Sir S V Ramamurthi, ICS, Advisor to the Governor of the erstwhile Madras State and Late Dr B V Nath, Director of Agriculture, Madras and was started at Bapatla on 11 July 1945 with Sri C R Srinivasa Iyengar as its first Principal. In his inaugural speech Sri Ramamurthi nas stated that ‘Cultivate Faith with Seeds of Vision to Yield Fruits of Action’.

Late Sri P V Krishnaiah Choudary, the then President of the District Board, Guntur leased out the local District Board High School to house the Agricultural College, with an option to acquire it later. The Andhra University Team led by Late Sir C R Reddy inspected the college and recommended its affiliation to the Andhra University from December 1945. The first batch of students completed their course and took their degree in 1948 from the Andhra University, Waltair. An area of 328 acres was acquired on Bapatla – Guntur road in the year 1950.

Recognition was given to the college to start M.Sc (Ag) by research from 1951. The year 1964 witnessed a turning point in the progress and destiny of this college consequent on it’s transfer to the control of Andhra Pradesh Agricultural University which was established under the dynamic leadership of Sri O Pulla Reddy, ICS (Retd.) as its first Vice-Chancellor. Another innovation adopted by the University was adoption of Trimester System together with Internal Assessment System and Advisory System for improving the quality of instruction and evaluation of students’ performance. The trimester system was replaced by semester system in 1972.

Thus post-graduate programme was initiated at Bapatla in Genetics and Plant Breeding in 1968, in Entomology and Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry in 1970 and the formal inauguration was done by the then Vice-Chancellor Sri O Pulla Reddi on 15-3-1971. Subsequently the Post-graduate programmes were started in Agricultural Economics in 1976, in Plant Physiology in 1978, in Agronomy and Plant Pathology in 1982, Extension education in 1984 and in Horticulture in 1986.

The Silver Jubilee of the college was celebrated enthusiastically in 1971 with late Sri A P Shinde, the then Minister of state for Food and Agriculture, Govt. of India as the Chief guest in the presence of late Sri Kakani Venkataratnam, Minister of Agriculture and late Sri O Pulla Reddy, Vice-chancellor and it was a milestone in the history of this college.

Several scientific clubs viz., Plant Physiology Club, Bapatla Chapter of Indian Society of Soil Science and Entomology Club and chapters were started to further the scientific outlook of teaching and scientific staff.

Dr M V Reddy during his tenure as Professor and Principal (1980-83) released rice variety BPT 5204 as ‘Samba Mashuri”. The Alumni Association of the College was inaugurated in December 1988 by Dr N G P Rao, the then Chairman, ASRB, New Delhi to have close interaction with one another.

In 1983, a 4-year B.Tech (Agril. Engineering) degree programme was started in the college. The B. Tech (Agricultural Engineering) Programme was declared as an independent College of Agricultural Engineering in 1989 and the college was moved to its new premises in May 1994. The College of Home Science was also started on the premises of this college in 1983 and subsequently, the college moved to its new premises in 1989.

Yet another milestone in the history of the college was starting of PhD programme in May 1993 in the departments of Plant Pathology, Plant Physiology and Entomology with an intake of 2 students in each department.

Another landmark of this college was the inauguration of Golden Jubilee Celebrations on 11 July 1994 presided over by the Vice-chancellor, Dr M V Rao. The chief guest was Dr G L Kaul, former Horticulture Commissioner, Govt. of India and an alumni of this college.

The Agricultural College, second of its kind in South India, has completed sixty years of glorious performance by the 11th of July 2005. Accordingly in the year 1999-2000, the Agricultural College, Bapatla has been accredited by the Indian council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi in the first phase itself based on the ICAR Pre Review Team Report.

The Agricultural Human Resource Development Programme (AHRDP) brought about a sea-change in the infrastructure and management of all teaching departments of Agricultural college, Bapatla. Sixteen teachers of this college have been deputed under this project to USA, Australia, Canada, Philippines and Thailand for short term overseas training / study tour / training in management areas. The AHRD Project of the university has provided many scientific equipment and student amenities.

This college is proud of several of its alumni who are in Indian Administrative Service, Indian Police Service, Indian Revenue Service, Indian Railway Service, Indian Forest Service etc