Agronomy is a branch of agricultural science and mother of all subjects, deals with the study of crops and the soils in which they grow. The Department of Agronomy has been established in the year 1959 and upgraded to post graduate centre in year 1965. Ph.D in Agronomy programme was started in the year 1976. The department is functioning in one of the oldest buildings called Freeman building constructed during the year 1926 with the amalgamation of British architecture. Many Agronomists were emanated from this department and served / serving national and international institutes. To mention a few Dr. Y. B. Morachan, Dr. S. Sankaran, Dr. Samisubramanian, Dr. SP. Palaniappan, Dr. R. Kaliyappa were renowned among agronomists and headed this department in the past.
Under the umbrella of Agronomy, Farm Management Unit and Veterinary and Animal Husbandry Science Unit are effectively administrated to cater needs of the farmers, scientists, students, extensional personnel and other visitors from the different corners of the country.
Centre of Advanced Faculty Training in Agronomy (CAFTA) sponsored by the ICAR was started in year 1995 continued with the objectives to train the scientists working in SAU on the advanced technologies developed in the field of agronomy and provide hands on training import the practical skill.
A total of twenty six courses are being offered to under graduate students of different degree programmes with a total credit load of 55 (20+35) under semester system of education. The Department is offering M.Sc.(Ag.) course with a credit load of 22 and Ph.D. courses with 18 credit hours. There are six major fields of specialization viz., crop production, rainfed agriculture, weed management, water management, organic farming and farming system is being offered for Ph.D., scholars to choose on their interest.
The ICAR Sponsored AICRP on Weed Management and AICRP on Integrated Farming System are being operated at this department. Through Centre of Advanced Faculty Training in Agronomy (CAFTA) the department is organizing 21 day training programme every year and so far completed 37 training programmes.
Recently the Department of Agronomy established Integrated Farming System model for marginal farmers, Oxygen Park, Tree Park and Multifunctional Agro Forestry Model in line with the greening of campus as well as sequester the carbon emitted from various sources and ensure daily income to the small and marginal farmers.