About Department
The Department of Natural Resource Management was established in the year 2019 as a separate department at HC&RI, Periyakulam. The department is involved in teaching for under graduate and post graduate students in the subjects of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, Agronomy, Microbiology, Biotechnology and Environmental Sciences. The department takes up multidisciplinary research for major horticultural crops and dissemination of technologies to the farmers through state government sponsored schemes. The main research focus is on formulating macro and micronutrient mixtures for alleviating nutrient deficiencies in horticultural crops, production of horticultural crops through organic cultivation, precision farming and agronomic interventions for high density planting systems (HDPS) in fruits and vegetables, development of bioinoculants for creating ecofriendly environment for crop cultivation, development of methods for micropropagation of important horticultural crops through plant tissue culture. The department offers training to the farmers about the importance of Soil testing, methods of collection of soil and water samples for laboratory analysis, benefits of biofertilizers and production of vermicompost. This department also generates revenue through supply of TNAU coconut tonic, production and supply of organic inputs like vermicompost and biofertilizers, analytical advisory services to the farmers on cost basis through venture capital schemes.
Mandate
- To offer undergraduate courses in Agronomy, Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, Agricultural Microbiology, Biotechnology, Environmental Sciences and Nanotechnology and post graduate course on laboratory techniques.
- To conduct research on nutrient management for maximizing the yield and quality for the horticultural crops.
- To study the production of horticultural crops with respect to yield, quality and soil organic carbon build up under organic cultivation.
- To impart training to the farmers on soil health management, environmental protection, production of organic inputs, developing entrepreneurial skills under horticultural based cropping systems.
Vision
- To make the department, a contact point center for catering quality education in the natural resource management and human resource development in horticultural sciences.
Mission
- Imparting quality education and entrepreneurship skill to the students and transforming them in to technocrats to cater the needs of horticultural sector