Agricultural Engineering College and Research Institute

Kumulur, Trichy, Tamil Nadu

India – 621 712

General

Agricultural Engineering College and Research Institute is a Constituent Educational Institution under the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University. The Agricultural Engineering College and Research Institute is the only College in Tamil Nadu offering agricultural engineering degree programme leading to B.Tech. It was started in the year 1972 at Coimbatore and the under graduate programme was shifted to Kumulur, Tiruchirappalli in the year 1992. The Kumulur campus has a total area of 283 acres.

Agricultural Engineering prepares a student for careers in the public and private sectors that address the challenges imposed by a rapidly growing world population, expanding food and energy needs, increasing resource demands and greater environmental stresses. The undergraduate programme imparts following skills to the undergraduate students

• Designing agricultural machines and structures
• Managing natural resources such as soil, water, crops, and forests
• Designing ways to maintain healthy environments for humans and animals
• Processing food, feed, fibre and waste products
• Developing efficient applications of computers
• Utilizing wind, non-conventional energy and bio-energy sources

EDUCATION

ADMISSION PROCEDURE

For getting admission into the college, the minimum eligibility marks to be secured by the candidate is as follows

HSC / Equivalent – Academic Stream

Subjects studied		Eligible Minimum Marks (%)
		OC	BC	MBC/DNC	SC/ST
i. Major	Mathematics	60	60	55	Pass
ii.Minor	Physics and Chemistry taken together	60	60	55	Pass
Aggregate of (i) and (ii) above should not be less than		70 (140/200)	65 (130/200)	60 (120/200)	Pass
HSC – Vocational Stream
i. Mathematics and Physics		60	60	55	Pass
ii. Vocational subject – Theory and Practical taken together		60	60	55	Pass
Aggregate of (I) and (ii) above should not be less than		70 (140/200)	65 (130/200)	60 (120/200)	Pass

Then the candidate has to appear in the Common Entrance Examination conducted by the Anna University, Chennai. The sum of the Entrance examination mark and the aggregate mark calculated as mentioned above is taken as the criterion for giving admission.

ACADEMIC PROGRAMME

The B.E (Ag.) degree programme consists of the following major areas of study

Sl. No	Subject	% of the total cuuriculum
1	General Engineering	15
	Agricultural engineering a. Farm Machinery and Power b. Soil and Water Conservation Engg. c. Agricultural Process Engg. d. Bio energy e. Agricultural Structures	60
2	Agricultural Sciences	10
3	Basic Sciences, Humanities and Legal issues	10
4	Practical Training a. Hands-on training in operation of tractors/power tillers/farm implements/drip & sprinkler irrigation systems etc. b. Commercial Agricultural Engineering c. Industrial Training and Village stay programme d. Tours and Visits and case studies e. Group project work	5

COURSE CONTENT

Basic Sciences, Humanities and Legal Issues This area covers study on Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Statistics, Economics and Languages. General Engineering This area covers study on Geometrical Drawing, Thermodynamics, Heat Power Engineering, Heat and Mass Transfer, Production Technology, Electrical Engineering, Theory of Machines & Machine Design, Surveying, Environmental Engineering, Fluid Mechanics and Electronics. Farm Machinery and Power Engineering This area covers study on Tractor Mechanism and Maintenance, Design and Testing of Tillage, Sowing, Harvesting and Thrashing machines, Plant Protection Equipments and Well Drilling Equipments. A very good production workshop is available with drilling machines, lathes, shaping machines, milling machines and welding machines. Students fabricate and test many agricultural implements in this workshop.

Soil and Water Conservation Engineering This area covers study on Irrigation and Drainage Engineering, Principles of Pumps, Hydrology, Ground water and Wells, Soil Erosion and its Control, Watershed Management and Drip and Sprinkler Irrigation Systems. Agricultural Structures Students learn to design and analyse structures for live stock and Farm houses. They also study Rural Water supply and Sanitary Engineering. Design aspects include laying of farm roads, village roads, construction of culverts, rural housing etc.

Agricultural Process Engineering This area covers study on Processing of Agricultural and Horticultural Crop Produces, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Systems, Food and Dairy Engineering, Waste and By-products Utilization and Agro Industrial Management.

Bio Energy This area covers study on Thermochemical Conversion of Biomass, Biogas Technology, Wind Mills and Solar energy Technology.

Agricultural Sciences Introductory courses on Crop Management, Soil Science, Horticulture and Seed Technology are taught. They are given hands-on training in farming under students’ plot cultivation programme. They are imparted training in Animal Husbandry and integrated farming.

LIBRARY College has a very good library facilty with 5561 total number of text books and 557 reference books. Twenty numbers of video lessons related to agricultural engineering are also available.

Practical Training

In the final year, students are attached with a leading industrial organization related to Agricultural Engineering for three months. They also stay for 10 days in a village to study the rural conditions and to plan for the developmental works. The village stay programme helps them to apply their theoretical knowledge to solve practical problems. The students are also taken on tours and field trips during their curriculum to get to know the latest developments around the country in the field of agricultural engineering. In the Commercial Agricultural engineering course, they are trained practically on selected subject areas to equip them for entrepreneurship. In addition, they take up research project in the sixth and the seventh year to solve a particular problem in a systematic way.

CAREER OPPORTUNITIES

The graduates of this college have good job prospects both in private and public sectors, government departments and nationalized banks. Following is the list of employers those have employed majority of our graduates.

Ø Agricultural Engineering Department, Government of Tamil Nadu.

Ø Farm Implements and Tractor testing institutes, Government of India

Ø Commercial public sector and private sector banks

Ø Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering, ICAR and other ICAR Institutes

Ø Tractors and Farm equipment manufacturing companies such as HMT, Massey Ferguson and Mahindra etc.

Ø Irrigation Equipment Companies such as Jain Irrigation. Plasto Irrigation, Premier Irrigation, etc.

Ø Food industries like Aurofoods, Thermox, Spencers, etc.

Ø Tea and Coffee estates and Processing companies such as AVT, Ponnappa coffee, TATA tea etc.

Ø Self employment in areas like manufacturing farm equipments, drip and sprinkler equipments, food processing industries and wind and bio energy gadgets

Our students have found places in the following institutions in India and abroad for MS and Ph.D. programmes

1. Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur

2. Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai

3. Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi

4. Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad

5. Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore

6. Indian Institute of Rural Management, Anand

7. Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore

8. Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli

9. G.B. Pant University, Pant Nagar

10. Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand

11. University of Manitoba, Canada

12. University of Saskatchewan, Canada

13. Ohio State University, USA

14. Oklahoma State University, USA

15. Pennsylvania State University, USA

16. South Dakota State University, USA

17. Texas A & M University, USA

18. University of California at Davis, USA

19. University of Georgia, USA

20. University of Nebraska, USA

21. Utah State University, USA

22. Virginia Technology, USA

23. University of Tokyo, Japan

THE FACULTY

DEAN

Dr. C. T .Devadas,

Department of Farm Machinery and Power & Bio-Energy

1. Dr. M. Ramanathan, Ph.D., Professor & Head

2. Dr. V. Murugesan, Ph.D., Professor of Bio-Energy

3. Dr. A. Tajuddin, Ph.D.,Assoc. Professor of Farm Machinery & Power

4. Dr. C. Diwakar Durairaj, Ph.D., Professor of Farm Machinery & Power

5. Dr. S. Ganapathy, Asst. Professor of Farm Machinery & Power

6. Er. Surendrakumar, M.E.(Ag.), Asst. Professor of Farm Machinery & Power

Department of Soil and Water Conservation Engineering & Agricultural Structures

1. Dr. S. Santhana Bosu, Ph.D., Professor of Soil and Water Conservation Engineering & Head

2. Dr. V. Rajendran, Ph.D., Professor of Soil and Water Conservation Engineering

3. Dr. R. Rajendran, Ph.D., Assoc. Professor of Soil and Water Conservation Engineering

4. Er. V. Kumar, M.E. (Ag.), Asst. Professor of Soil and Water Conservation Engineering

5. Dr. V. Ravikumar, Ph.D., Asst. Professor of Soil and Water Conservation Engineering

6. Er. R.Lalitha, M.E. (Ag.), Asst. Professor of Soil and Water Conservation Engineering

Department of Agricultural Process Engineering & Basic Sciences

1. Dr. S. Varadharajan, Ph.D. Assoc. Professor of Physics & Head

2. Ms. S.Daisy, B.Sc., M.P.Ed., Asst. Director of Physical Education

3. Mr. R.Sathy, Ph.D., Asst. Professor of Mathematics

4. Dr. K. Alagusundaram, Ph.D., Asst. Professor of Agricultural Process Engineering

5. Dr. T. Pandiyarajan, Ph.D., Asst. Professor of Agricultural Process Engineering

Department of Agricultural Sciences

1. Dr. N. Ramasamy, Ph.D., Professor of Agronomy & Head

2. Dr. R. Marimuthu, Ph.D., Professor of Plant Breeding

3. Dr. B. Thiyagarajan, Ph.D., Professor of Agricultural Extension

4. Dr. R. Kavimani, Ph.D., Professor of Agronomy

5. Dr. K. Annadurai, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Agronomy

6. Dr. P. Parasuraman, Ph.D., Asst. Professor of Agronomy)

7. Dr. P. Masilamani, Ph.D., Asst. Professor of Seed Technology

8. Mr.R. Senthilkumar, M.Sc.(Ag.), Assistant Professor of Agricultural Economics

9. Dr. P. Balasubramaniam, Assistant Professor of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION KINDLY CONTACT

The Dean,

Agricultural Engineering College and Research Institute,

Tamil Nadu Agricultural University

Kumulur, Lalgudi

Tiruchirappalli – 621 712

Tamil Nadu India

Phone: 0431 – 2541218, 2543 718.

FAX: 091-431-2541218

Email: deancaekum@tnau.ac.in

RESEARCH

In this college, many research schemes funded by external agencies are being undertaken. Following is the list of the schemes undergoing.

S1. No.	Name of the Scheme	Funding Agency	Budget Rs. In Lakhs	Period		Project Leader
				From	To
1	Land Drainage Planning in Thanjavur Delta using Remote Sensing and GIS	ICAR / NATP-CGP	21.87	1.4.2001	31.3.2004	Dr. S. Santhana Bosu Professor, Soil and Water Conservation Engineering
2	Study on the effect of sugarcane distillery effluent on the agro-eco system through system modeling	SISMA, Chennai.	4.74	1.4.2002	31.3.2005	Dr. S. Santhana Bosu, Professor, Soil and Water Conservation Engineering
3	Development and micro processor based precision farming equipment	ICAR NATP – CGP	17.22	1.4.2001	31.12.2003	Dr.C.Divaker Durairaj, Professor, Farm Machinery
4	Development of an electrostatic sprayer	ICAR-NATP CGP-II	11.6	1.4.2003	31.12.2003	Dr. S. Ganapathy, Asst. Professor (FMP)
5	Rainfall climatology of Agro Eco Zone no.4 of North western Agroclimatic zone of Tamil Nadu.	ICAR Adhoc	7.3	Yet to start	-	Dr. P. Parasuraman Asst. Professor (Agronomy)
6	Controlled Atmosphere Storage	ICAR – AP Cess	19.80	1998	2003	Dr. K. Alagusundaram, Asst. Professor (APE)
7	Microwave Irradiation for sterilizing liquid foods with particular emphasis on producing value added mango pulp	ICAR – NATP – CGP	12.70	2001	2004	Dr. K. Alagusundaram, Asst. Professor (APE)

EXTENSION & TRAINING

Farm advisory services are provided to the farmers, on various agricultural engineering applications and agricultural practices. The staff of this college are regularly invited as expert speakers by the organizations like Irrigation Management Institute, Trichy and Agricultural Engineering Training Institute, Trichy. Recently the college has been recognized as the Rice Breeding Center by the University. Following are the some of the trainings organized at this college recently.

Sl.No	Name of the Training	Duration / Date	Collaborating organizations	Number of participants
1	Waste Land Development	24.4.03	Kumaraperumal Farm Science Centre (KVK), Sirugamani.	25
2	Entrepreneurship Development	29.7.03	Funded by McGill –CIDA Canada under the project on “Consolidation of Food Security in South India and TREC – STEP, Trichy	40
3	Paddy Direct Seeder	16.9.03	Animal Man Ecology Foundation (AME) and KSNM Marketing, Coimbatore	110
4	System of Rice Intensification (SRI)	Rabi Season 2003	Tamil Nadu Rice Research Institute, Aduthurai	7