III. Country Statement (Contd.)

PLANT PEST MANAGEMENT CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT IN INDIA

Prabhakar S. CHANDURKAR

Director, National Plant Protection Training Institute,
Directorate of Plant Protection, Quarantine and Storage,
Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India,
Rajendranagar, Hyderabad - 500044, India

ABSTRACT

Indian agriculture has made significant progress in increasing crop production. Beginning with the first agricultural university at Pant Nagar in 1960, India now has one of the largest networking of agricultural education system today. It provides education to about 10,000 students in 11 undergraduate programmes of agriculture and allied sciences and about 6,000 students in post-graduate programmes in more than 60 disciplines. Human resource development is regarded as the most important factor to quickly popularize the latest technological development in plant protection among the farmers.

The Bachelor degree holders constitute the bulk of recruits for public and private sectors in agriculture. From time to time, the Dean's Committees of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research have recommended model curriculum to unify the curricula of agricultural universities.

In the past, postgraduate education in Entomology and Plant Pathology has received little attention. But Plant Protection has become important recently because of global concern about environmental and health effects of pesticides, related issues of international trade and the need for Integrated Pest Management (IPM) approach. Reorientation of formal education and extension methods becomes crucial as IPM assumes more importance. IPM courses for both the undergraduate and post-graduate levels have also been proposed.

In general, many graduates now in extension functionaries lack practical experience. Training to upgrade their professional competence is needed. Presently, the National Plant Protection Training Institute at Hyderabad and the Directorate of Plant Protection are generating trained manpower in IPM of rice, cotton, vegetables, and some oilseed and pulse crops. These involve season-long Training-of-Trainers programmes and other long and short training programmes. The curriculum, updated regularly, is aimed at developing IPM skills, and is augmented with panel discussions, special topics and group dynamics.

Since the Government of India and the State Governments are providing increasing support in IPM among farmers, it is envisaged that there will be a greater need for the introduction of IPM courses in the curricula of universities/institutes.

INTRODUCTION

Agriculture is the backbone of the Indian economy. The most important goal in agriculture is to achieve higher productivity and production to meet the ever-increasing demand of food commodities/products. In order to achieve this, a number of scientific disciplines and diverse kinds of resources have to be deployed in a well-planned and systematic manner. The primary producers also must be made aware of the great potentials through the application of science in agriculture. Plant protection technology occupies an important position in agricultural crop production. Most often, losses due to pests are the major limiting factor for sustaining the increase in crop productivity and production. On average, the avoidable crop losses caused by pests, such as insects, diseases, weeds and others in India, have been estimated to range from 10% to 30% of the total production. To keep pace with the demand for food commodities, adoption of appropriate strategies that include effective, economical, safe and environmentally sound plant protection technology in sustainable agriculture, is a critical requirement. Agricultural education caters to the needs of the country's manpower in utilizing research and extension appropriately for the country. Curriculum plays an important role in imparting knowledge and skill required for human resource development in any discipline. Periodic revision of syllabi by all institutes of learning is an essential component of curriculum development to produce qualified and competent manpower to handle emerging situations in a rapidly changing agricultural scenario. The curriculum for plant pest management in agricultural universities and allied institutes is thus an integral part of agricultural education. The current status and future needs of plant pest management curriculum in agricultural education in India is presented below.

THE GENESIS OF AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN INDIA

There is historical evidence to show that agricultural education existed in India during the medieval period. Sporadic attempts were made in early times to have schools for training in agriculture. However, organized instruction in agriculture was first introduced at the beginning of the twentieth century when six agricultural colleges offering diploma courses were established at Kanpur, Lyalpur (now in Pakistan), Coimbatore and Nagpur in the year 1906, in Pune in 1907 and in Sabour in 1908. Fullfledged departments/faculties of agriculture were set up by some of the universities such as at Calcutta, Benaras and Viswa Bharati before the agricultural universities came into existence. The University Education Commission (1948–49) under the Chairmanship of the eminent educationist Dr. S.Radhakrishnan recommended the setting up of ‘Rural Universities’ to cater for the needs of Agriculture in India. Subsequently, two Joint Indo-American Study Teams headed by K.R.Damale (1955) and M.S.Randhawa (1960) recommended the establishment of agricultural universities on the pattern of the Land Grant Colleges of USA. Accordingly, the first such State Agricultural University (SAU) in the country was set up at Pant Nagar in Uttar Pradesh in 1960. Thereafter, more agricultural universities were established in various States in quick succession. Presently, there exists 28 State Agricultural Universities (SAU) in the country, one Central Agricultural University and four Institutes under the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR). The latter four Institutes are of the status equivalent to universities. ICAR is also assisting the development of agricultural faculties of three Central Universities, viz: Banaras Hindu University, Alligarh Muslim University and Viswa Bharati. Apart from these universities and ICAR institutions, 35 agricultural colleges are affiliated to traditional universities. In addition, there are many institutes/training centres at Central and State Government levels for in-service training of their personnel. Thus, India's national agricultural education and research system is one of the largest in the world, providing educational facilities in 11 degree programmes in agricultural and allied subjects, and post-graduate programmes in more than 60 disciplines with an annual intake of about 10,000 undergraduate and 6,000 postgraduate students.

PLANT PEST MANAGEMENT CURRICULUM:
HISTORY AND REFORM

Undergraduate Education

The Bachelor Degree holders constitute the bulk of recruits for the public sector programmes of development in agriculture. Therefore, high quality undergraduate education is very essential and critical. It is an accepted national policy that entrance to the universities has to be after 12 years of pre-university education known as the 10+2 system.

The first major exercise for improvement of curriculum and courses of agricultural education was undertaken in the late 50s by the erstwhile ICAR that formulated model curriculum for the undergraduate programme in agriculture. The First Committee of Deans from agricultural universities in 1965 examined the status of undergraduate curriculum in agriculture and provided some broad guidelines for the development of curriculum so that it could be a useful programme. Most of the universities have tried to follow the guidelines framed by ICAR. So, a fairly uniform pattern has emerged. The Second Dean's Committee in 1981 recommended a model curriculum for undergraduate education in agriculture. This provided the basic guidelines for developing curricula by universities. The Committee recommended a 4-year, 8-semester undergraduate degree programme after the 10+2 years of pre-university education. The Committee also recommended a crop-production-oriented programme with practical field training and rural work activities to enable graduates to understand the agricultural and socio-economic complexities of rural farmers. To provide additional knowledge and training in selected areas of agricultural development, the Committee suggested that the curriculum should provide at the final stage of the degree programme a wide range of electives that are employment-oriented instead of specializations in academic disciplines. Furthermore, there should be 149 semester credit hours for B.Sc. (Agriculture) programme that included 8 credits in Entomology, 7 credits in Plant Pathology, 2 credits each in Nematology and Weed Control with a provision of 12 credits for Plant Protection Electives (optional). These recommendations have been accepted and implemented by majority of the universities. However, no university offered the Integrated Pest Management (IPM) course or Bachelor Degree programme in Plant Protection. More recently, the Third Dean's Committee (1995) recommended 160 credits for a 4-year undergraduate degree programme with a weightage of 12 (7+5) credits for Entomology, 10 (5+5) for Plant Pathology and 2 (1+1) for Weed Management and Nematology each. These also have two courses of 2 credits each, one on IPM and the other on Plant Disease Management. Furthermore, there is a 2 (1+1) credit load for Environmental Science and Agroecology. Besides, an additional 25% workload in Rural Agricultural Work Experience Programme (RAWEP - 21 credits) has been earmarked for Plant Protection. Thus, the total weightage for Plant Protection courses as recommended by this Dean's Committee is about 32 credits out of a total of 160 credits. The credits allocated for these Plant Protection courses excluding RAWEP in certain State Agricultural Universities are presented in Table 1.

Table 1. Plant protection curriculum in undergraduate programme at agricultural universities in India (Course title with numbers indicating the credit hours)

Mahatma Phule Krishi Vidyapeeth, Rahuri

1. Introductory Entomology 1 + 1
2. Insect Development Classification & Applied Entomology 2 + 1
3. Economic Entomology - I  1 + 1
4. Economic Entomology - II 1 + 1
5. Introductory Plant Pathology     1 + 1
6. Diagnostic Techniques (Path)  0 + 1
7. Diseases of Crop Plants - I  1 + 1
8. Diseases of Crop Plants - II 1 + 1
9. Agricultural Nematology  0 + 1

Electives (optional)

10. Ecology and Environment 1 + 1
11. Repair & Maintenance of Plant Protection
12. Plant Protection   1 + 1

Equipment 1 + 1

Orissa University of Agriculture & Technology, Bhubaneshwar

1. Introductory Entomology     3
2. Principles of Pest Control   2
3. Economic Entomology     3
4. Introductory Mycology      2
5. Principles of Plant Pathology      2
6. Plant Diseases & their Control   3
7. Plant Nematology     2
8. Weeds & Weed Control     2

Electives (optional)

9. Storage Entomology & Rodent Control      2
10. Economic Nematology     2

Acharya N.G.Ranga Agricultural University, Hyderabad

1. Introduction to Entomology     2 + 1
2. Insect Taxonomy, Ecology & IPM     2 + 1
3. Crop Pests & their Management     3 + 1
4. Field Diagnosis in Agriculture (Entomology)     0 + 1
5. Sericulture, Apiculture & Lacculture     1 + 1
6. Introduction to Plant Pathogens     2 + 1
7. Principles of Plant Pathology     2 + 0
8. Diseases of Field & Horticultural Crops     3 + 1
9. Plant Disease Management     1 + 1
10. Weed Management     1 + 1
11. Agricultural Chemicals     1 + 1
12. Environmental Science & Agroecology     2 + 1

Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore

1. Fundamentals of Entomology     2 + 1
2. Economic Entomology     2 + 1
3. Principles & Methods of Pest Management     2 + 1
4. Pests of Field Crops & their Management       1 + 1
5. Pests of Horticultural Crops & their Management     1* 1
6. Fundamentals of Plant Pathology     2 + 1
7. Principles of Plant Disease Management     1 + 1
8. Diseases of Field Crops - I      1 + 1
9. Diseases of Field Crops - II     1 + 1
10. Diseases of Horticultural Crops     1 + 1
11. Plant nematology     1 + 1
12. Weed Management     1 + 1
13. Agricultural Chemicals & Soil Pollutants     2 + 1

G. B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pant Nagar

1. Introductory Entomology     2 + 1
2. Economic Entomology       2 + 1
3. Insect Pests & their Management     2 + 1
4. Introductory Plant Pathology       2 + 1
5. Crop Diseases & their Management     2 + 1
6. Mushroom Cultivation        0 + 1
7. Weed Management     1 + 1
8. Environmental Science & Agro-ecology     2 + 1

Chowdhury Charan Singh University, Meerut also awards B.Sc. (Agriculture) degree and follows the annual system of ‘marks’ and not the ‘grade point’ or the Course-Cum-Credit System. In this 4-year undergraduate programme, three out of 24 courses are plant protection related, having a weightage of 225 marks out of 1950 marks, viz:

1. Plant Pathology & Microbiology 50 + 25
2. Agricultural Entomology 50 + 25
3. Plant Protection 50 + 25

In general, a similar curriculum is also followed in some of the other universities. The total credits for a 4-year B.Sc. (Agriculture) programme may vary from 145 to 181 (with Theory class of 1 hour and 2–3 hours practical in most SAUs). Total credits alloted to Plant Protection courses (Entomology, Plant Pathology, Nematology and Weed Science) ranged from 17–31 credits with 8–13 credits for Entomology and 8–12 credits for Plant Pathology. In Table 1, Nematology is included in Plant Pathology wherever it is offered separately. Though Weed Science is considered a part of Pest Management, for obvious reasons it is a component of Agronomy and dealt with accordingly. However, in Table 1, it is included in the total Plant Protection credits wherever it is offered as a separate course. In addition, most of the universities are offering courses in Agricultural Chemicals/Pollutants/Environmental Science and Agroecology ranging from 2 to 5 credits which are Plant Protection related but included in Soil Science and Environmental Science Faculties. The Third Dean's Committee also felt that the exposure of students to post-harvest and storage technology of agricultural produce is lacking and that it is necessary for students to be trained in this aspect, and therefore, recommended a 2-credit course on Post-Harvest Technology. At present, the pest management in post-harvest stage is covered in Entomology under Crop Pest Management and partly in the Post-Harvest Technology course for undergraduates. In most of the universities, there is no separate course to cover this topic. However, Storage Entomology and Rodent Control, a 2-credit course is offered as optional in some universities.

Post-graduate Education

The post-graduate education in universities did not receive much attention in the past. Presently, however, the agricultural university system in India provides for postgraduate education in more than 60 disciplines in agriculture and the allied sciences. There is a need to look into the curriculum and recommend well-designed courses that can provide advanced and in-depth knowledge to the students to face the many emerging challenges. The universities presently offer post-graduate degrees in Entomology, Plant Pathology (including Nematology) and Agronomy with specialisation in Weed Management. But, only few universities offer Master of Science degree in Plant Protection as a subject, viz: Viswa Bharati, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University and Aligarh Muslim University. Table 2 gives an example of the existing curriculum for post-graduate level education in the faculty of Entomology at the ANG Ranga Agricultural University, Hyderabad. The total credits requirement for a Master degree programme is 56 credits which includes a minimum of 18 credits each for the major and minor subjects and 20 credits for research. For Doctoral programme, the total requirement is 75 credits which include 22 credits for the major subjects, 8 credits for minor subjects and 45 credits for research.

Table 2. Curriculum for post graduate programme in the Faculty of Entomology at Ranga Agricultural University, Hyderabad, India. (Course title with numbers indicating the credit hours)

In-Service Education/Training

The plant protection extension functionaries in the officer cadre are generally agricultural graduates who join the service after their initial education at the college level. The Committee on Agricultural Universities has highlighted the weakness in terms of practical training in the curricula of undergraduate degree programmes. Consequently, the graduates are unable to handle with confidence many practical problems encountered in the field and cannot serve as professional agriculturists. There is a need for reinforcing the professional competence of extension functionaries through imparting knowledge, diagnostic capability, practical and problem solving skills, attitudinal change leading to confidence building and capacity building. Only a few extension workers are able to transform a technical recommendation into instructions that farmers can follow. It has been recognized that training can help develop this capability in extension personnel. Inservice training, therefore, has assumed considerable importance in this context where extension officers are expected to provide more specific and specialized guidance to the grassroot level extension functionaries who handle various production programmes.

Training in Pest Management of Field Crops

In India, the agricultural programmes expanded considerably in the sixties and so also are the plant protection programmes. Moreover, there was growth in the number of extension functionaries in the different States. There was greater need for plant protection interventions to reduce crop losses caused by pests. Lack of adequate trained manpower in plant protection in the States was one of the major constraints in organizing appropriate control measures against crop pests. According to the recommendations of the Planning Commission of India in 1957, there should be at least one plant protection specialist at the ‘block level’. Thus, a need was felt that the national training strategy should build an efficient cadre of plant protection personnel. Recognizing this need, the Central (now National) Plant Protection Training Institute (NPPTI) was established at Hyderabad in 1966 as a training wing of the Directorate of Plant Protection, Quarantine & Storage under the Ministry of Agriculture, Govt. of India. The Institute has the main objective of human resource development in plant protection. The NPPTI has been entrusted with the responsibility of training master trainers and subject-matter specialists in the State Departments of Agriculture on different aspects of plant protection technology. Over the years, this premier national institute for training in plant protection technology has been strengthened to become a Centre of Excellence. It is now acknowledged as a Regional Training Centre for Plant Protection by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. The NPPTI organizes long term and short term training programmes. Currently, the important training programmes are:

1. Post Graduate Diploma Course in Plant Protection.
2. Training in Pesticide Formulation Analysis.
3. Training in Pesticide Residue Analysis.

The Post-Graduate Diploma Course is of 10-month duration. It is designed for inservice personnel with B.Sc. degree in agriculture and who are working in various State Departments of Agriculture. The course is also open to those unemployed agricultural graduates who wish to take up plant protection as their career. In pursuance of the recommendations of the Project Coordination Committee for UNDP Project for strengthening of NPPTI, the Ministry of Agriculture, Govt. of India, set up an Academic Committee in 1976. This Committee was to draw up the curriculum and dealt with related issues for the Post-Graduate Diploma Course in Plant Protection. The course contents/syllabi have been constantly revised by incorporating the latest developments in plant protection technology. Table 3 provides the curriculum for the Diploma Course.

Table 3. Curriculum of the post-graduate diploma course in plant protection in India. (Course title with numbers indicating the credit hours)

1. Principles of Pest Management 2 + 1
2. Plant Protection I 2 + 1
   (Pest management in cereals and millets)
3. Plant Protection II 2 + 1 (Pest management in vegetables and fruits)
4. Plant Protection III 2 + 1 (Pest management in pulses, oilseeds and commercial crops)
5. Special topics in Plant Protection 2 + 1
6. Pesticide Chemistry 2 + 1
7. Plant Protection Equipment 2 + 1
8. Plant Protection Extension 1 + 1
9. Seminar * 0 + 1
10. Field Service Training 0 + 2
11. Plant Protection Research * 0 + 3
12. Institutional Visit + Study Tour * 0 + 1

Total Credits 30

* Participation in both semesters

The training course consists of 30 credit hours to be covered in two semesters, each consisting of 19 weeks with a break of 4 weeks for study tour and individual projects. Crop-based IPM approach is emphasized. Field Service Training is one of the important aspects of this course in which participatory action research and agroecosystem analysis in different crops in the farmers' fields are carried out. The trainees have interaction with farmers about their field problems and how to solve them. The faculty members guide the trainees to ensure that the officer-trainees would gain full confidence about communication with farmers. They are also fully backed with the required technical competence in knowledge and skills. The Pesticide Formulation Analysis Course is 3 months long and is organized for those who are/will be manning the Pesticide Testing Laboratories that are concerned with quality control of pesticides under the Insecticides Act. The curriculum covers analysis of pesticide formulations that are commonly available and uses the latest sophisticated analytical techniques that are reviewed and updated regularly. This curriculum is given in Table 4. To undergo the course, trainees must have at least B.Sc. (Agriculture) degree. The course is essentially laboratory-oriented with the training largely hands-on.

Table 4. Curriculum of pesticide formulation analysis course. (Duration is three months)

1. Theory

• Introduction to basic principles of chemical analysis by volumetric, chromatographic and spectroscopic techniques.
• Introduction to structural representation of organic molecules with special reference to pesticides.
• Principles, reactions, calculations, procedures, precautions involved in analysis of various pesticides and their formulations.
• Pesticide formulations and their compositions.
• Toxicity, symptoms of poisoning, first aid and antidotes for pesticide poisoning.
• Insecticides Act-1968 and rules framed thereunder and other legal aspects.
• Quality control of pesticides.

2.  Practical

Officer trainees have to perform analysis of the following pesticides.

3. Seminar

Officer trainees have to choose a topic related to the training course and give a talk for about 15 minutes. Officer-trainees are guided by the staff when they prepare for the seminar.

4. Study tour

Officer-trainees have to undertake educational study tour of about 10 days duration.

5. Record

Officer-trainees have to maintain the practical record book which has to be submitted periodically for correction.

6. Examination

Theory and practical examinations are conducted at the end of the course and the over-all performance of the trainees is evaluated.

The Pesticide Residue Analysis Course is a post-graduate course of 3 months duration. The participants must have at least B.Sc. (Agriculture). This course includes a detailed theoretical background to pesticide residue analysis in food commodities and related sampling methods in the environment. Laboratory exercises using highly sensitive analytical techniques form an important part and trainees are given extensive hands-on training. The curriculum is periodically updated and revised to ensure that it meets with the current requirements.

PLANT PEST MANAGEMENT CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT IN INDIA

S.N. PURI

Vice-Chancellor, Mahatma Phule Krishi Vidyapeeth
V.C. Lodge, ‘MITHILA’, M.P.K.V., Rahuri 413722
Ahmednagar, Maharashtra State, India

ABSTRACT

Entomology and Plant Pathology were the main subjects in early plant protection science. Today, instruction in Plant Protection is offered by more than 30 State Agriculture Universities, one Central Agriculture University and 20 general universities (through 48 colleges). Agricultural education has passed through different phases, starting from the conventional British University System to trimester followed by the semester system.

The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has been instrumental in curricula changes for different undergraduate and post-graduate programmes in India, with detailed guidelines developed by the Dean's Committee. The aim is to produce agricultural graduates with a strong pest management capability so as to assure greater sustainability in agricultural production and to protect the environment.

Graduates may take a career in teaching, research, extension, consultancy or agribusiness in plant protection. With this in mind, ICAR has recommended the B.Sc. (Ag.) and B.Sc. (Hort.) degrees to include the important feature of Rural Agricultural Work Experience. The latter permits students to do practical training in farmers' fields to gain real life experience in pest management.

Regular in-service training for extension personnel and researchers is considered crucial. Currently, ICAR crop research institutes provide such training in commodity-based IPM while ICAR National Centre for IPM provides in-service orientation programme to university teachers and extension personnel. For the latter, the National Plant Protection Training Institute plays a key role in providing the needed inservice training within the country.

For post-graduate courses, many additional aspects relevant to plant protection will need to be included, such as, latest surveillance/forecasting techniques, quarantine laws, pest risks analysis, protected horticulture, mass production of bioagents, bio-informatics, and others.

INTRODUCTION

The green revolution in India has led to a quantum jump in agricultural production, thereby placing the country in a comfortable position as regard to domestic food demand. However, the expected population of 1,100 million by 2050 is bound to create pressure on the available land. This will lead to a reduction in per capita availability of land, which at the present rate will decline to 0.13 ha by 2050 from the present level of 0.22 ha. With 960 million people, and nearly 18 million people added annually, India will be required to produce 240 million tonnes of food grains by the year 2006. Even with the fall in the population growth from the current 1.8 per cent to 1.4 per cent by 2011, India's population will continue to grow by an additional 16 million people each year. Just to nurture this population alone, Indian farmers will have to produce an additional 3.2 million tonnes for each year (Singh, 1998).

Pests, which include any species, strains or biotypes of plant, animal or pathogenic agents injurious to plants or plant products are major production constraints. On average, they cause 15– 20% losses in crop yield. An estimated 75,000 species of insect pests (and much more than this for diseases) affect agricultural corps worldwide. The number of diseases is on the increase as a result of co-evolution in pathogens in response to changing hosts and micro-climate. Even with reduction of just half of these losses, India would annually harvest an additional 15 to 20 million tonnes of food grains (Singh, 1998). Krishnamurthy Rao and Murthy (1983) estimated these annual losses in India at Rs. 60,000 million which later increased to Rs. 200,000 million (Jayaraj, 1993). Recent estimates of losses stand at Rs. 290,000 million (Dhaliwal and Arora, 1996).

Intensive agricultural practices have relied heavily on chemical inputs that on occasions have proved to be eco-destabilizing. Pesticide sprays have served as insurance to a bigger harvest. As a result, the pesticide use has increased from 434 tonnes (technical grade) in 1954 to more than 80,000 tonnes in recent years. Surprisingly, more than 36% of this quantity is used in Andhra Pradesh alone and nearly 53% on cotton crop although the latter occupies only 5% of cropped area in the country. The pesticide industry in the country is presently valued at between Rs. 22,000–25,000 million worth per annum.

The enormous amount of losses due to pests has always attracted the attention of scientists in India. In the earlier years, the emphasis was more on controlling the pests rather than their management. The initial attempts to develop the required human resource for research and extension activities focussed on two disciplines, namely, Entomology and Plant Pathology. Weed control was treated just as one of the operations in crop production by agronomists while nematode problems were grossly neglected.

HISTORY OF PLANT PEST MANAGEMENT CURRICULUM

At present the instructional programme in various disciplines of plant pest management is offered at 30 State Agricultural Universities (SAUs), one Central Agricultural University and one deemed University of the Indian Agriculture Research Institute (IARI). Besides, there are 20 general universities with several affiliated colleges/departments offering undergraduate and post-graduate programmes. There are 48 such colleges/departments in India of which 31 offer post-graduate instructions. Organized instruction in plant protection was introduced in the beginning of the 20th Century when five agricultural colleges were established in 1907. After passing through various phases of development the SAU system came into existence.

Historically, plant protection education was the responsibility of the agricultural colleges and other institutes affiliated to the general universities. Undergraduate students were offered subjects like Zoology in the first year, Agricultural Entomology in fourth year, General Bacteriology in the second year and Plant Pathology in the fourth year for a four-year degree programme. However, since 1960 the course curriculum was changed and the subjects included Zoology in pre-university, Internal Anatomy in B.Sc. Part 1 and Economic Entomology in B.Sc. Part III (or final year) of the degree programme.

For M.Sc. (Agri.) degree programme, students had to write three papers for Entomology, viz: (i) Morphology, Physiology and Taxonomy, (ii) Economic Entomology, and (iii) Applied Entomology. For Plant Pathology, the papers were (i) Principles of Plant Pathology, (ii) Diseases of Crop Plants, and (iii) Bacteriology, Virology and Nematology. These were patterned after the British teaching model.

After the establishment of Agricultural Universities, most of the colleges adopted the trimester system of education. The general distribution of courses in Entomology and Plant Pathology for B.Sc. (Ag.) comprises 18 credit hours allotted to Entomology and 13 credit hours to Plant Pathology out of a total of 208 credit hours. In addition, students had to take some elective courses. Unfortunately, this system did not work well in the colleges of SAUs. There were wide variations in the duration, credit load, number of subjects covered and pattern of education imparted. While the number of courses giving instructions in pest management was fairly constant (varying from four to five) in Entomology and Plant Pathology, the pattern of farm training, extent of the topics covered, sequencing of courses, and others, showed very wide variations among the different Institutions offering the courses. The examination system and evaluation also varied. Therefore, it was subsequently decided to change to a more uniform system of education.

The system of education, evaluation and grading in various Agricultural Universities reveal that all of them are now following the semester system except for IARI which continues with the trimester system. Distribution of courses in Entomology and Plant Pathology for B.Sc. (Agri) under the semester system included 5 courses in Entomology with 8 credits and 3 courses with 7 credits in Plant Pathology. The graduation programme has a total of 117 credits which also include the electives and other core courses. Students also have to carry out actual plant protection operations in the field under the WEX (Work Experience) course. The post-graduate students have a choice to take different courses depending upon the nature of the research problem they undertake. In general, very few students opt for the course in Insect Taxonomy or select research problems relating to Systematics.

THE REFORM OF CURRICULUM

Education is a dynamic process as it should be relevant to the changing needs of the society. Course curriculum is the first and very important component of education. It is the basic requirement to go through and be understood well by a student to gain knowledge and develop skills to perform a specific function. Therefore, to keep education relevant, the course curriculum should be periodically reviewed and modified to suit the ever-changing requirements of the society.

The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has been instrumental in effecting curricula changes of different undergraduate and post-graduate programmes in the country since 1950s. The first major exercise was made in the late 50s by the then Indian Council of Agricultural Education that formulated the model curriculum for B.Sc. (Agri.) programme. After the establishment of SAUs, ICAR has made periodic exercises to revise the curriculum and course outlines in agricultural education. The first Dean's Committee appointed by the Council submitted its report in 1965, which provided detailed guidelines for undergraduate and post-graduate education. The Agricultural Universities Review Committee headed by Dr. M.S. Randhawa (1977) suggested the constitution of the Second Dean's Committee. This committee headed by Dr. N.K. Anant Rao submitted its report in 1981. Most of the recommendations of the committee pertaining to curriculum revision were accepted.

The Third Dean's Committee headed by Dr. Kirti Singh was set up by ICAR in 1991. The committee constituted sub-groups, which organized workshops involving Deans and senior faculty members from various colleges, who after thorough studies recommended the course structures for degree programmes. The recommendations were accepted for implementation in 1996 by the Vice-Chancellors' Conference.

For the last 50–60 years, the implicit goal of the plant protection curriculum has been to educate agriculture students in all aspects of plant pest control that will make them capable of handling pest management measures immediately after graduation. This goal is now outdated. The aim should be to produce agricultural graduates with a strong background in modern science, biology of pests, principles and techniques of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and macro/micro-economy relating to pest management, so as to improve sustainability in agricultural production and to protect the environment. The educational system should be capable of producing competent plant pest management experts. This is particularly significant in the context of professional technical manpower requirement; professionals who not only can keep abreast of developments in plant pest management technologies but also capable of sizing up any pest management problems and challenges and suggest possible relevant solutions. On 30th April, 1998, the Joint Meeting of Deans of all Faculties formed faculty-wise groups to examine this matter for undergraduate programmes. Course curricula and course outlines were fine-tuned after going through several exercises and later placed before the meeting of Accreditation Board held on 28th September, 1998.

CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT IN AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITIES
AND RELATED INSTITUTES

The main aim of restructuring course curriculum according to the Swaminathan Committee on Education for Agriculture (1997) was to re-orient educational and research programmes to meet the challenges of sustainable agriculture. Such a restructuring will involve training of students in the principles and practices of pest management and also for employment generation. The education should equip students to meet the challenges in the 21st Century. With intensification of agriculture and threat of destabilization to ecosystem, the theoretical understanding and practical training of graduates in pest management technologies must be appropriately matched.

Some graduates may go for post-graduate education and pursue a career of research and teaching. Some may opt to work with the State Departments of Agriculture while others may undertake practical consultancies or run agri-business enterprises in plant protection. However, the glamour of government jobs still dominates, although the private sector has in recent years begun to absorb the graduates in a big way. The global opportunities for export of Indian agricultural produce also offer new avenues. Because of the stringent regulations of importing countries with respect to pesticide residues, there is created a greater scope for precision and prescription farming, where adoption of IPM technology with minimal use of pesticides becomes crucial.

It is necessary to develop and promote the use of ecologically sound pest management practices in the interest of sustainable farming. Undergraduate students must therefore be guided to have the basic understanding of this and to have a broad-based education. Specialization at this level will only fail to match the field demand since the graduate will be expected to cater to the overall and diverse plant protection needs of the clients.

Post-graduate education in plant pest management needs to be re-structured to meet the occupational demand and absorptive capacity of the economy. Generally, very few of the graduates enter into research and teaching. Most remain in occupations where all-round knowledge of plant pest management is needed for the jobs. Specialisation offered at the post-graduate level are by and large needed mostly for jobs in research and education sector.

Keeping these points in view, the ICAR's Education Division has recommended new course structure for B.Sc. (Agri.) and B.Sc. (Hort.) students. The important feature is that students must be involved in RAWE (Rural Agriculture Work Experience) where a student has to do practically all farm operations while staying with a farmer in a village. However, subjects such as Nematology and Weed Management were still neglected.

At the post-graduate level the committee under the chairmanship of the Dean, Post-graduate School, IARI, is currently examining and restructuring the courses and syllabi for M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Entomology, Plant Pathology and Nematology.

CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT FOR IPM TRAINING

There are many definitions of IPM. Recently, Kogan (1968) defined it as “a decision support system for the selection and use of pest control tactics, singly or harmoniously coordinated into a management strategy, based on cost/benefit analyses that take into account the interests of an impacts on producers, society, and the environment”. The philosophy of integrated management of pests, diseases and nutrients provides the key to successful farming with sustainable yields. Agenda 21 of the UN Conference on Environment and Development at Rio de Janeiro in June 1992 identified IPM in agriculture as one of the requirements for promoting sustainable agriculture and rural development.

The need for sustainability without impairing the ecological balance and the shift from the paradigm of chemical (pesticide) control to natural control has brought in the concept of IPM. Initially, the concept originated with the early success of classical biological control. Later, this was blended with other methods of pest control to contain the pests more effectively. This resulted in the origin of the concept of integrated control during the 1950s. The idea of managing insect pest populations was proposed by Geier and Clark (1961) who called the concept as “Protective management of noxious species” for pest management. In India, the concept owes its origin to Dr. S. Pradhan who first proposed Integrated Pest Control (IPC) as utilizing the combination of different methods of pest control. Later the concepts of economic threshold level (ETL) and economic injury level (EIL) for decisive control measures were incorporated and the term “control” replaced with “management”. The aim was to keep the pests below the ETL and manage them without impairing the yields. The strategy to “kill all” gave way to the concept of “live and let live”

Effective implementation of IPM depends on firm commitment of extension personnel. Since, the IPM concept is still not widely understood in the country, constant in-service training will be required to motivate scientists, teachers, extension personnel and farmers.

There is greater need to provide training for personnel from the SAUs, as they in turn have to organize training programmes for extension functionaries from the Department of Agriculture. Such training activities are presently organized by the Crop Research Institutes of ICAR and the National Centre for Integrated Pest Management for a period varying from 1–4 weeks. The subject matters of such courses include mostly the basic concepts and philosophy of IPM, different pest management techniques used and some special topics in the new frontier areas. Efforts have been made to ensure participation of the various faculties so as to achieve an effective integration of the different disciplines.

The extension personnel from State Governments receive training from the Crop Research Institutes as well as the National Plant Protection Training Institute (Government of India) at Hyderabad. A number of courses are organized for the trainees. The course curricula are also periodically revised and updated in consultation with experts from different fields.

The curriculum for training farmers is simple with more emphasis on skill development. It however differs in contents from state to state. Examples of some of the important topics included in the training are identification of friendly insects and crops pests, methods to protect the population of natural enemies, safe ways of handling pesticides and need-based use of safe and eco-friendly biopesticides or botanicals.

THE FUTURE

Plant pest management in future will demand the knowledge on all aspects of pests, and therefore, discipline-oriented graduates or post-graduates will have many limitations in practising IPM. Farmers will be more interested in prediction of outbreaks so that precautionary measures are taken in time. The new course curriculum will need to include topics such as Prediction and Forecasting, Pest Risk Analysis (PRA), Quarantine Laws, Use of Transgenics in IPM, Pest Management in Protected Horticulture and Poly-House Cultivation, Mass Production of Bioagents and Biopesticides, Application of User Friendly IPM Software, and Linkages with PRA and Geographic Information System (GIS) to better enable graduates to deal with problems and issues when they enter into the general employment. At the Ph.D level, specialized topics in selected subjects may help in creating the trained manpower for future research assignments.

Presently, the emphasis is still discipline-oriented whereas field problem demands a commodity-based approach since farmers are generally interested in protecting his crop in the field from a wide range of pests, such as, insects, diseases and nematodes. In the future, a holistic approach in IPM that involves interdisciplinary understanding will be needed. But formulation of such a programme may create working difficulties for the current students in the future as they may find themselves inadequate with the present discipline-oriented degree from the academic institutions. However, he/she may have better prospects as a consultant.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I express my thanks to Dr. Anupam Verma, Dean, PG School, IARI, New Delhi, Dr. S.B. Sharma, Head, Division of Nematology, IARI, New Delhi and Dr. Amerika Singh, Director, National Centre for Integrated Pest Management, New Delhi for their suggestions and F.A.O. Bangkok for inviting me to participate.

REFERENCES

Anonymous. 1998. Education for Agriculture: Swaminathan Committee Report. 115 pp.

Anonymous. 1998. Academic Regulations and Curriculum for Degree Programme in Dairy Technology. 57 pp.

Dhaliwal, G.S. and Ramesh Aroara. 1996. Principles of Insect Pest Management. National Agricultural Technology Information Centre, Ludhiana. 374 pp.

Jayaraj, S. 1993. Biopesticides and Integrated Pest Management for Sustainable Crop Production. Pp 65–81. In: (ed) Roy, N.K. Agrochemicals and Sustainable Agriculture. APC Publications, New Delhi

Krishnamurthy Rao, B.H. and Murthy, K.S.R.K. 1983. Proceedings of National Seminar on Crop Losses Due to Insect Pests. Indian Journal of Entomology (Special issue). Vol. 1 & 2, Hyderabad.

Singh, R.B. 1998. Protecting the harvest: IPM approach. B.P. Pal Memorial Lecture, IARI, New Delhi. 12 pp.