BSc Agriculture courses a hit among girls at Khalsa College

Divya Sharma

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, March 29

“I come from a farming background. The problems faced by my family members in farming over the years have motivated me to study agriculture. I will go back home and help my father in his work. I will try to use the new techniques that I will learn here,” said Mehakpreet Kaur, a first-year student of BSc Agriculture at Khalsa College.

Like her, a number of girls have opted for agriculture courses in the co-ed college and their number has increased in the past few years. Students have to appear for the entrance examination to get admission to these courses.

Many girls have opted for such courses to contribute to the agriculture sector in multiple capacities, most importantly to help their families.

“People normally associate agriculture with boys. They don’t think of other avenues or opportunities to impart knowledge of new techniques to farmers,” said Ramandeep Kaur, a third-year student of four-year BSc Agriculture.

Some of the girls want to create awareness about new techniques among the farming community by opening shops to provide balanced and environment-friendly pesticides and working as agriculture development officers or in a company associated with agriculture.

“I come from a small village of Fazilka. I have seen adverse affects and poor condition of agriculture. I want to go back and improve my area,” said a first-year student.

Dr Randeep Kaur Bal, head the agriculture department, Khalsa College, said, “The number of girls opting for agriculture courses has increased in past few years. Earlier, only boys used to take admission to these courses. Girls were allowed to take admission around 18 years ago. This time, the number of girls is more than that of boys in the first year of BSc Agriculture.”