School of Agriculture (SOA), Uttaranchal University organized a Seven Days Faculty Development Programme on the topic ‘Contemporary Pedagogical Advancement in Agriculture Education’ from 13th May 2022 to 19th May 2022. Sri Jitendra Joshi, Chancellor, Uttaranchal University accompanied with Prof. (Dr.) Dharam Buddhi, Vice-chancellor, Uttaranchal University and Prof. (Dr.) Sanjeev Kumar Shah, Dean, Uttaranchal College of Polytechnic. By tax lotus of Hon’ble Chancellor and Vice-chancellor the lamp lighting was carried. Later After playing of University Anthem Prof. (Dr.) M.P. Singh, Dean, SOA welcomed the dignitaries. There was an address by Guest of Honour Prof. (Dr.) Uma Shankar Sharma, Former Vice Chancellor, Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture and Technology, Udaipur, Rajasthan. Proceeding was carried ahead with the addressing of Hon’ble Vice-chancellor, Uttaranchal University. He appreciated the effort and theme of FDP. Later Hon’ble Chancellor, Uttaranchal University gave blessings to all the attendees and persuaded to organize such events more in future. Dr. Rajendra Prasad, Head of the Department proposed Vote of Thanks to commence Inaugural Ceremony.
On day 2 of Faculty Development Programme Dr. V.K. Varshney Scientist-G and Head, Chemistry & Bioprospecting Division, Forest Research Institute, Dehradun gave lecture on ‘Scope of Aroma Science in Agriculture University’. Dr. Varshney quoted “Nowadays, use of alternative and complementary therapies with mainstream medicine has gained the momentum. Aromatherapy is one of the complementary therapies which use essential oils as the major therapeutic agents to treat several diseases. The essential or volatile oils are extracted from the flowers, barks, stem, leaves, roots, fruits and other parts of the plant by various methods. It came into existence after the scientists deciphered the antiseptic and skin permeability properties of essential oils. Inhalation, local application and baths are the major methods used in aromatherapy that utilize these oils to penetrate the human skin surface with marked aura. Once the oils are in the system, they remodulate themselves and work in a friendly manner at the site of malfunction or at the affected area. This type of therapy utilizes various permutation and combinations to get relief from numerous ailments like depression, indigestion, headache, insomnia, muscular pain, respiratory problems, skin ailments, swollen joints, urine associated complications etc. The essential oils are found to be more beneficial when other aspects of life and diet are given due consideration.” He also gave tips to the faculty members how can they guide and motivate students who are seeking for start-ups in aroma industry. Later questionnaire round was held and doubts of faculty members were promptly solved by the speaker. At 4:00 pm on the same day lecture was given by Guest of Honour Prof. (Dr.) Uma Shankar Sharma, Former Vice Chancellor, Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture and Technology, Udaipur, Rajasthan on ‘Organic Farming’. He initiated his lecture by saying “Organic farming is a production system which avoids or largely excludes the use of synthetically compounded fertilizers, pesticides, growth regulators, genetically modified organisms and livestock food additives.” He informed about the hazards of these synthetic growth regulators, pesticides etc. Session ended with round of questionnaire. Queries of the faculty members were aptly solved by the speaker.
Day 3 started at 11:30 am with the lecture by Dean of SOA Prof. (Dr.) Mahipal Singh on the topic ‘Advancement in Teaching Pedagogy to make teaching more meaningful for the students’. Dr. Singh demonstrated various qualities of a teacher and quoted various tools to be used in teaching pedagogy so the lecture can be made more interesting. The most effective pedagogies encompass a range of teaching techniques, including a detailed guide for teachers, structured and whole-class group work, guided learning, assessment practice and individual activity. These pedagogies focus on improving higher-order thinking and meta-cognition and make good use of questioning and dialogue in doing so. At Structural Learning, we try to steer away from teaching fads such as learning styles (it was once thought that children should be labelled a visual learner, a kinesthetic learner or an aural learner). Whatever learning environment you are operating in, it's good practice to utilise what research is available to us. We all share the same goal in enhancing the learning experience of children. Our focus has always been on developing deep learning experiences. This involves unpicking the learning process and designing effective teaching strategies that really get children thinking. Session ended with questionnaire round. At 4:00 pm session was started with next guest speaker Dr. Santosh Kumar, Scientist-E, Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata, Ministry of Environment and Forest, Government of India. He said “Soils are complex systems and their complexity resides in their heterogeneous nature: a mixture of air, water, minerals, organic compounds, and living organisms. The spatial variation, both horizontal and vertical, of all these constituents is related to soil forming agents varying at different scales. Consequently, the horizontal patchy distribution of soil properties (soil temperature, moisture, pH, litter/nutrient availability, etc.) also drives the patchiness of the soil organisms across the landscape and has been one of the main arguments for explaining the great diversity observed in soil communities. Furthermore, because soils also show vertical stratification of their elemental constituents (along the soil profile) as result of microclimate, soil texture, and resource quantity and quality differing between soil horizons, soil communities also change in abundance and structure with soil depth.” He also appended how the effort of farmers can be raised in maintaining soil health. Session was interactive; and queries and their resolutions went in parallel.
On 16th May, day 4th Er. Rajesh Deorari, Manager QMS, Uttaranchal University gave lecture on ‘Equilibrium between tedious Academic Activities and Academic Performance Indicator (API) Score’. It was an interactive lecture with the faculty members. Session started with issues and challenges that faculty members were facing in coping with academic activities and API score. Er. Deorari quoted ‘Why Why Analysis’ and demonstrated with the instance of case study. He said it is very important to first defining of the problem and then to go root cause of that. This is how solution can be found and such problems/challenges will not appear for long. Faculty members put their doubts and issues which were aptly solved by the speaker. Later the next session started with the external expert Dr. Naresh Gupta, Senior Medical Officer, CHC Premnagar, Dehradun, Uttarakhnad on the topic ‘Physical and Physiological Health of Teaching Professionals’. Dr. Gupta took the context of Covid-19 and the challenges the world faced in all sectors. He showed the importance of not only physical health but psychological health. Dr. Gupta spoke about various issues related to the health at the workplace and suggested appropriate solutions. His recommendations for minor changes in the lifestyle are very useful for everyone’s health, specifically adopting them can reduce stress from our life. He satisfactorily replied to the doubts of faculty members.
Day 5 started with the interactive lecture by Prof. (Dr.) N.S. Rathore, Vice Chancellor, Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture and Technology, Udaipur, Rajasthan on "Contemporary pedagogical advancement in Agriculture Education". He initiated about the components of teaching pedagogy, need for its advancement and methods through which teaching fraternity can improve pedagogical systems in agriculture education. He gave the most accurate statistics of Indian agriculture and focused on reasons for advancement of agriculture education in our country. He highlighted the methods for skill development; start up and entrepreneurship and employability generation through strengthening of students’ READY programme. Dr. Rathore suggested for innovation at every step of teaching pedagogy and pointed out for need of blended learning system, technological interventions in education, Artificial Intelligence, machine learning, coordination between research and business output, global collaboration, etc. He recommended that learning should not be bounded to institute’s premise rather it must be explored to any reach. Session ended with questionnaire round where prompt answers clarified the doubts of the listeners. Next session started with the lecture by Dr. Ajay Singh, Dean SALS on ‘Time Management in Classroom Teaching’. He said that prioritizing the topics and enlisting them can make lecture more efficient and effective. Topics can be planned earlier so the time can be solved for doubt clearing session on the same day. He gave beautiful demonstration how the planning for each step before lecture… while lecture…. after lecture can save time. Queries were raised by the faculty members which were aptly resolved by the expert.
Day 6th, 18th May 2022 session started with the lecture Lecture by Prof. (Dr.) Satendra Kumar, Professor, Department of Soil Science, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel University of Agriculture and Technology, Meerut, Uttar Pradesh on ‘ Soil Health and Soil Fertility’. He enlightened faculty members about the challenges and needs of soil health and to raise soil fertility. He quoted that as the era is changing... Society is changing..... thence need is changing, so to meet the needs of society and human beings it becomes quite significant to work towards raising soil health which consequently brings better soil fertility and better yield of crops in Agriculture. Next session started at 4.00 pm with the lecture by Dr. Rajesh Singh, Director, DRI on ‘IPR and Technological Advancement in Agriculture’. He emphasized by saying that ‘Technology in agriculture affects many areas of agriculture, such as fertilizers, pesticides, seed technology, etc. Biotechnology and genetic engineering have resulted in pest resistance and increased crop yields. Mechanization has led to efficient tilling, harvesting, and a reduction in manual labour. Irrigation methods and transportation systems have improved, processing machinery has reduced wastage etc., and the effect is visible in all areas. New-age technologies focus on robotics, precision agriculture, artificial intelligence, block chain technology, and more.” Session ended with questionnaire round where doubts of faculty members were promptly solved by the expert.
Day 7, session started at 11.30 am with lecture by Prof. (Dr.) Mohd. Yousuf, Professor and Dean, School of Life Science & Head Department of Zoology, Central University of Kashmir, Jammu & Kashmir on ‘Individual Contribution of Faculty Members to the branding of University’. He enlightened the attendees about important mandates in branding of University. He suggested that faculty members may take responsibilities rather than teaching only, like research activities, mentorship, warden, proctor and research collaboration with National & International organizations. Next session started at 4.00 pm with the lecture by Dr. Arun Bhatt, Associate Professor, Govind Ballabh Pant Institute of Engineering and Technology, Ghurdauri, Pauri, Garhwal, Uttarakhand on ‘Process and document preparation for registration of patent in India’. He initiated lecture by saying that the complete patent registration process involves a series of steps which are to be mandatorily followed to get a patent in India. He spoke in detail all the aspect in relevance to patent registration and filing. He also showed the usually made errors by the people and also gave solutions how to get rid of committing these type of errors. It was a worthy session for all the attendees. Session ended with doubt clearing session.
One week faculty development programme covered all the aspects related to advancement in teaching pedagogy in agriculture. Expert speakers from varied fields cleared the advancement arose in the agriculture and allied fields and the implications of these in teaching-learning process. On the last day Head of the Department Dr. Rajendra Prasad proposed Vote of Thanks. Dean, SOA appreciated the effort of everyone. Hon’ble Chancellor , Vice-chancellor and Pro Vice-chancellor praised the programme and persuaded to organize such events more in future.
