Agri students get a taste of village life in Arasikere taluk

T. Kodihalli (Hassan district)

For the seventh-semester students of the Agriculture College at Karekere near Hassan, it is the time to stay in villages and experience farming.

As many as 101 students of BSc in Agriculture have been put in six villages of Arasikere taluk for the last month as part of the Rural Agriculture Work Experience (RAWE) programme.

They will continue to stay there for two more months, sharing their knowledge with the rural people.

The students have been divided into six groups and each group is allotted one village. Now, they have been working in T. Kodihalli, Jyothi Mallapura, Thalalatore, Kunighattahalli, Thalaluru, and M. Habbanaghatta in Arasikere taluk. Teaching faculty guide them regularly.

“All these days we learnt about agriculture within the four walls of the classrooms. Now, the RAWE programme has given us an opportunity to see the actual life of a farmer on the ground,” said Kushal Sagar, a native of Chitradurga district, staying put at T. Kodihalli along with 17 other classmates.

The students begin their work by gathering information about the village. They study the crop pattern, traditional farming methods adopted by the community, and significant issues bothering them on the field, among other things.

“One of the major issues we found is stem bleeding in coconut farms,” pointed out Ravi Teja J., a native of Telangana.