Overview
The College of Agriculture, Bheemarayanagudi, shall complete nearing two Decade of its existence, situated in the North-Eastern dry zone of Karnataka located between 16 0 43‘ N and 76 0 51‘ E longitude at an elevation of 411.75 meters above MSL characterized by dry climate with an average annual rainfall of 774.1 mm. It lies in the heart of Upper Krishna Irrigation Project, a prestigious and largest irrigation command of the country with projected irrigation potentiality of 10 lakh ha. The nearest Railway stations are Yadgir (42 km away) and Gulbarga (Kalaburagi) (72 km away) with an international Airport situated 280 km South East(Rajiv Gandhi International Air Port, Hyderabad).
The Butterfly Building of Karnataka
Historical Background
North-eastern dry region in Karnataka is educationally, socio-economically and agriculturally backward and needs concerted effort for its up-liftment on all fronts. Therefore, the visionaries paved way for the development by undertaking Upper Krishna Irrigation Project during sixties, one of the major projects in Karnataka and the most prestigious multipurpose project. The project became operational during eighties and for the first time irrigation water was released from Narayanpur Dam during 1984. Keeping in view of implementation of the irrigation project, the University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore established an Agricultural Research Station at Bheemarayanagudi during 1981 under National Agricultural Research Project Phase I so as to enable farmers to acquaint themselves to the changing agricultural scenario by developing technologies and finding solutions to the location specific problems arising out of release of water. Subsequently, to look in to the drainage needs, an international funded Indo – Dutch Network Operational Research Project on Drainage and Water Management for Salinity Control in Canal Commands was started at this place during 1996 which has done exemplary work. However, these efforts were not enough to meet the immediate needs particularly the agricultural education for the youth. Therefore, College of Agriculture at Bheemarayanagudi, Yadgir district, now a constituent college of University of Agricultural Sciences, Raichur came into being during 2001(Order No. AHD 39 AUM 99, Dated 01.10.1999, Bangalore) under the erstwhile University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad. The College is located on the state highway SH 19 connecting Bidar–Srirangapatanam and is about 5 km from Shahapur town, known for its ‘Sleeping Budda’ hillock view. The mandate of the institution is “to prepare the human resources for teaching, research and extension activities” and the mission statement of the college is “to develop human resource in agriculture through teaching and by providing hands on experience on latest technologies, capacity building for future, handling independent research projects and efficient dissemination of research findings to the farming community of Kalyan-Karnataka, in particular and country as a whole”.
In fact, the infrastructure of the Agricultural Research Station, Bheemarayanagudi formed the framework of this College. The Agriculture Extension Education Centre was established to strengthen farmer- extension worker linkage at Bheemarayanagudi during 2002 to hasten transfer of technology to the farming community. Now, this region has made a mark in the country as this area is considered as pulse bowl of the state and the country with considerable area under rice-rice, Bt cotton and irrigated chilly. Today, the College stands tall in the hearts of farming community for its concerted efforts.
