VIT School of Agricultural Innovations and Advanced Learning (VAIAL)

VAIAL, in Tamil language, refers to productive agricultural field. The VIT School of Agricultural Innovations and Advanced Learning (VAIAL) focuses on agricultural education, training, research and extension activities. Core activities of the school revolve around teaching and training of students, organising farmers training programmes, outreach and field programmes for the farmers as well as research in agricultural and allied sectors on a techno-commercial scale. It aims to be a fore-runner in developing and demonstrating next-generation sustainable smart agriculture at the global level. The school offers not only world class learning and training, but also imparts experience to the students in science, technology and business aspects of agriculture. VAIAL serves the farming community with custom-designed technologies for improved agricultural productivity. Facilitating the growth of young agriculturists with innovative minds, that are tuned to address the challenges of current and future agriculture, is one of the central objectives of the school. Development of scientifically sound and economically viable bio-products as alternative novel inputs for better performance of agricultural crops remains an indispensable activity.
From the date of its inception, VAIAL has been working to address field level problems arising with farmers; to safeguard soil health, improve crop performance and enhance their earnings. VAIAL offers quality training to promote the implementation of organic and sustainable agricultural technologies. Integration of components like farm animals, poultry, fishery, mushroom, apiary, sericulture, composting, farm machinery for processing and value addition of produce etc improves their competitiveness in agricultural business sector, environmental protection and the overall improvement of quality of life of farming community. VAIAL offers a UG Programme: B. Sc. (Hons.) Agriculture (4 Years) and Research Programme in agriculture and allied areas. Students are made to work closely with farmers to learn and understand the actual issues involved in farming.
The School has qualified faculty in various fields of agriculture including Agronomy, Soil Science, Entomology, Plant Pathology, Agricultural Microbiology, Plant Breeding and Genetics, Plant Biotechnology, Crop Physiology, Agro Processing, Agricultural Engineering, Geoengineering, Horticulture, Water Technology and Agricultural Extension. The current areas of research in agriculture and allied subjects at VIT include microbial biotechnology, tissue culture technology, crop genomics research, molecular markers for crop improvement, Hi-Tech horticulture, remote sensing applications in agriculture, management of problem soils, medicinal plant research, food quality and processing, fermented food and food product development, renewable energy for agriculture and design of cost-effective farm machinery. For research, VAIAL collaborates with multiple institutes in the country like Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, Indian Institute of Millets Research, Hyderabad, Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, Bangalore, Central Institute for Cotton Research, Coimbatore, Indian Institute of Rice Research, Hyderabad, International Crop Research Institute for Semi Arid Tropics, Hyderabad etc. and Foreign Institutes like Galilee International Institute, Israel, University of Essex, UK, Leibniz University Hannover, Germany, University of Alberta, Canada, Agricultural Biotechnology Institute, Hungary, Cranfield University, UK, Gyeongsang National University, South Korea and ETH-Zurich, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Switzerland.
The School has great facilities that includes teaching labs with high-end equipment and analytical instrumentation, smart classrooms, conference halls, research labs for multi and trans-disciplinary research, agricultural and horticultural land space, botanical garden, medicinal plant garden, composting units, irrigation facilities, farm office and farm machinery. VAIAL also enjoys the facilities of other Schools and various branches of Engineering, Science and Technology of VIT. The School also has reasonable number of farm staff to monitor and execute day-to-day farm activities. Crops such as rice, vegetables, pulses, coconut, millets etc. are grown in the farm. VAIAL organises Agricultural Expo every year, in which 4000+ farmers and scientists participate.
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