Agriculture College in Odisha, an
imaginative, innovative, unconventional and ground-breaking concept in
itself, was the dream of legendary visionaries in early '50's, when India
was striving hard to stride forward impressively. The idealistic, quixotic
and utopian leader late Mr. Biju Pattnaik spear-headed the drive for
establishment of the said Agriculture College which finally reached
culmination on 2nd May, 1954 with laying of foundation stone for Utkal
Krushi Mahavidyalaya, now the College of Agriculture at Bhubaneswar, by Mr.
Rafi Ahmed Kidwai, the then Union Minister for Food and Agriculture,
Government of India. Time has its ripples, the crests and and troughs, yet,
it never stagnates. Initially, the institution started as a minuscule
undergraduate college in a primary school building at Unit-1, Bhubaneswar
with an intake capacity of 32 students taught under only seven U.G
Departments. In due course of time, number of the U.G Departments has
swollen steadily to a present status of 16, where as the students in roll as
the first entry has fluctuated time and again as per the human resource
requirement of the state departments of Agriculture, Horticulture and Soil
Conservation and allied public and private sectors. At present, the College
has an intake capacity of 192 at U.G level, 150 at P.G level and 46 at Ph.D.
level. All the departments are offering P.G programme where as Ph.D. course
programme is offered in 14 Departments. Till the year 2011-12, the college
has produced 6515 graduates 3093 postgraduates and 188 Ph.D.s, serving the
human kind in general and the farm community in particular in assorted,
diverse and multifarious capacities. It is worthy to mention that the alumni
of this College can be traced at any nook and corner of the country as
officers in agriculture and allied sector institutions, agri-based
national and multinational companies, Nationalised banks and Indian Civil
Services. Besides, exhibiting outstanding excellence in curricular
programmes, this college has produced exponents in the field of games,
sports, literature and culture.