Agricultural professionals will now have access to low-cost agricultural education with the National Virtual Academy of Indian Agriculture opening enrolment for the first in a series of open online courses in agriculture.

The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, which has its global headquarters in Hyderabad, and the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, are also partnering in this initiative.

The first course is on ‘Diseases of Horticultural Crops and their Management’. It was launched yesterday by MS Swaminathan, Emeritus Chair of the MS Swaminathan Research Foundation in Chennai.

Global educational institutions are increasingly adopting such massive open online courses. “Given India’s need for reaching out to the largest possible number of learners, such online courses are seen as the best way forward to ensure quality agricultural education,” David Bergvinson, Director-General, ICRISAT, said.

Swaminathan said the course could significantly push the bar for quality online education to meet the requirements specifically of India’s agricultural education system, in a country where more than 70 per cent of the population is involved in agriculture directly or indirectly.

The course materials for the first course have been methodically planned and prepared by an experienced team of educators and professors in the field of agriculture. The course will run from February 9 to April 6, 2015, an ICRISAT release said today.

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