Established on March 29, 1968 Mahatma Phule Krishi Vidyapeeth, Rahuri' (M.P.K.V.) is Maharashtra's first state agriculture university, which became operational from October 1969. Headquartered in Rahuri, Ahilyanagar district (formerly Ahmednagar), with jurisdiction across 10 districts of western Maharashtra. It has an area of 4762.14 hectares of which 3739.1 hectares are dedicated to farm cultivation; while the remaining 1,022.43 hectares serve administrative and infrastructure purposes.mcaer.org The university's primary mandates include: i) Education: Providing comprehensive agricultural education and degree programs.
ii) Research: Conducting advanced research within the agricultural sector. Developing and supplying high-quality seeds and planting materials.
iii) Extension: Facilitating technology transfer through farmer training and extension services.
Academics-education The MPKV has an educational mandate to provide Diploma, Undergraduate (UG), Postgraduate (PG), and Doctorate (Ph.D.) level quality education in agriculture and allied fields for skill development and to produce competent human resources . It offers Bachelor's degree programs in Agriculture, Horticulture, Agricultural Engineering, and Food Technology. Business Management, Biotechnology, Animal Husbandry, Diploma in Agriculture, and Agril. Polytechnics; Master's degree programme in 21 disciplines of Agriculture and 03 disciplines in Agriculture Engineering, and Doctoral degree programme in 18 disciplines of Agriculture and 04 disciplines of Agriculture Engineering.
Faculty of Agricultural Science consists of various 15 departments, viz., Agricultural Botany (with four subdisciplines viz. Genetics and Plant Breeding, Plant Physiology, Seed Science and Technology; Molecular Biology and Biotechnology), Agricultural Economics, Agricultural Engineering, Agricultural Entomology, Agricultural Extension & Communication, Agricultural Meteorology, Agronomy, Animal Husbandry and Dairy Science, Biochemistry, Food Science and Technology, Horticulture, Interfaculty Department of Irrigation Water Management, Plant Pathology and Agricultural Microbiology, Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry and Statistics.
Undergraduate level constituent colleges The university has 15 constituent Government colleges with a total UG intake capacity of 1104 students. It includes 8 Agriculture Colleges, 2 Agricultural Engineering Colleges, 2 Horticulture Colleges, and 1 college each of ABM and Food Tech, with their details as given below.
Post Graduate Institute, Rahuri (Central campus) : The Post Graduate Institute of Mahatma Phule Krishi Vidyapeeth, Rahuri was established in the year 1972 exclusively to impart Post-Graduation Degree to Agricultural graduates. Before 1972, PG Degree Programme of the university was run at the College of Agriculture, Pune affiliated to the University of Poona, offering Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Agriculture. In 1972, the postgraduate degree programme was transferred from Pune to Rahuri and the institute started functioning at the basic science building at the university's central campus. In the year 1979-80, the functioning of PG programme started in the present building of the Post Graduate Institute. It offers Masters degree in 21 disciplines of Agriculture and Doctoral degree in 17 disciplines of Agriculture College of Agriculture, Pune (); The College of Agriculture, Pune is one of the first five agricultural colleges established in India. It has an intake capacity is 190 for B.Sc. Hons. (Agri.) and 54 for PG degree. Initially started in 1908 and was shifted to a building (Now the Old College building) in 1911. In 1969, the College was transferred to the Mahatma Phule Krishi Vidyapeeth, Rahuri on its establishment. On the Centenary, a New Building was constructed and the College was shifted to it. College of Agriculture, Dhule ; The College of Agriculture in Dhule was initially established in 1960 with affiliation to Pune University. Initially, it served the North Maharashtra's Khandesh region, including the districts of Dhule, Jalgaon, Nasik, and Nandurbar. The college spans a total of 242.73 hectares, with 180.47 hectares (74.35%) under cultivation. It has an intake capacity is 128 for B.Sc. Hons. (Agri.) and 54 for PG degree. Rajarshee Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj College of Agriculture, Kolhapur : Initially established at Kasaba Bawada on 30 June 1963, it was shifted to its present location at Old Pune-Bangalore Highway in 1968. This College encompasses a total area of about 131.38 hectares, out of which 85.55 hectares are available at the main campus. It has an intake capacity is 190 for B.Sc. Hons. (Agri.) and 54 for PG degree. College of Agriculture Nandurbar : It has an intake capacity of 60 students for B.Sc. Hons. (Agri.) degree, out of which 80% seats are reserved for Scheduled Tribe students.. This college was established on 1 August 2018 with a focus on providing agricultural education to tribal students, to increase their involvement in farming and allied activities. College of Agriculture, Karad : The Government of Maharashtra sanctioned the College of Agriculture, Karad, on the occasion of the celebration of the birth centenary year of the Late Hon. Chief Minister Shri. Yashwantrao Chavan in 2011. It has an intake capacity of 60 students for B.Sc. Hons. (Agri.) degree. . College of Agriculture, Muktainagar ; It has an intake capacity of 60 students for B.Sc. Hons. (Agri.) degree The college was sanctioned in the Year 2015. Punyashlok Ahilyadevi Holkar College of Agriculture, Halgaon- Ahilyanagar : This college was started in the Year 2018-19 with an intake capacity of 60 students for B.Sc. Hons. (Agri.) degree. College of Agriculture, Kashti-Malegaon, Nashik : It has an intake capacity of 60 students for B.Sc. Hons. (Agri.) degree Dr. Annasaheb Shinde College of Agricultural Engineering & Technology, Rahuri Dr. Annasaheb Shinde College of Agricultural Engineering, Rahuri : It has an intake capacity of 64 students for B.Tech. (Agriculture Engineering) degree. In addition, it offers Master's degree programs in 3 disciplines and Doctoral degree programs in 4 disciplines of Agricultural Engineering. College of Agricultural Engineering & Technology, Kashti-Malegaon: It has an intake capacity of 40 students for B.Tech. (Agriculture Engineering) degree. College of Horticulture, Pune; It has an intake capacity of 34 students for B.Sc. Hons. (Hort.) degree. College of Horticulture, Kashti-Malegaon, Nashik: It has an intake capacity of 60 students for B.Sc. Hons. (Hort.) degree. College of Agricultural Business Management, Kashti-Malegaon, Nashik : It has an intake capacity of 60 students for B.Sc. Hons. (ABM) degree College of Food Technology, Kashti-Malegaon, Nashik: It has an intake capacity of 40 students for B.Tech. (Food Technology) degree.
Undergraduate affiliated colleges Apart from this, 66 unaided colleges are affiliated to this university, run by various voluntary cooperative/ private / NGO organizations, offering seven Undergraduate degree programmes. B.Sc. (Hons) Agriculture is offered by 34 affiliated colleges with their total intake capacity of 3420 students. six affiliated Horticulture colleges have an intake capacity of 360 B.Sc. (Hons) students, four affiliated Colleges have an intake capacity of 300 B.Tech. (Biotechnology)students, B.Tech. (Food Technology) offered by five affiliated colleges with an intake capacity of 320 students, B. Tech. (Agril. Engg.) being offered by nine affiliated colleges with an intake capacity of 480 students, and B.Sc. (Hons) AMB being offered by eight affiliated colleges with an intake capacity of 600 students.
Master's level The University offers Master's degree programs with a total intake of 309 students at Post-Graduate Institute, Rahuri, College of Agriculture, Pune, Kolhapur and Dhule; and Dr. A. S. College of Agricultural Engineering & Technology at Rahuri . Besides them an affiliated College at Baramati also offers PG degrees in 11 disciplines.
Doctoral Level Further, the Post Graduate Institute (intake capacity of 66 M.Sc. students in agricultural science ) , Dr. A. S. College of Agricultural Engineering & Technology (Total intake of 12 students in Agril. Engineering) offers the Doctoral level programmes. College of Agriculture, Pune offers Ph.D. (Agri.) in Meteorology with an intake capacity of 2 students.
Diploma Level Faculty of Lower Agricultural Education offers Diploma courses in Agriculture through 9 constituent and 76 unaided affiliated Agricultural Technical Schools to the university at present to provide trained manpower at the grass root level in Agriculture field ..
Research
The university has a network of research stations spread over different agroclimatic zones. In all, there are 27 state-funded research stations, excluding the Central Campus, which comes under the Office of the Chief Scientist, Seed and Director, Farm. Besides them, there are 46 ICAR-AICRP centers under this university.
There are four Zonal Agricultural Research Stations located in four Agroclimatic Zones and 18 sub-Research Stations for verification of research work and to take up the research programmes. In addition to this, the State level Crop Specialists are there Oilseeds Specialist at Jalgaon, Sugarcane Specialist at Padegaon (Satara), Wheat Specialist at Niphad (Nashik), and Chief Soil Scientist at Solapur. At present, MPKV has 85 non-plan schemes funded by the State Govt.,45 AICRPs on different crops and plant sciences, and one centrally Sponsored Research Scheme.
The following is a list of 27 research stations (including four Zonal Agricultural Research Stations) with 85 non-plan State-funded schemes across 10 districts of Western Maharashtra.
Each ZARS for each zone has an Associate Director of Research to coordinate zonal activities.
Zonal Agricultural Research Station, Igatpuri Dist. Nashik Zonal Agricultural Research Station, Shenda Park, Kolhapur Zonal Agricultural Research Station, Ganeshkhind, Pune Zonal Agricultural Research Station, Solapur Central Sugarcane Research Station, Padegaon, Dist-Satara Agriculture Research Station Niphad, Dist. Nashik Oilseed Research Station, Jalgaon Banana Research Station, Jalgaon Agriculture Research Station Kasbe Digraj, Dist. Sangli Agriculture Research Station, Savalvihir, Dist- Ahilyanagar Agriculture Research Station, Chas, Dist- Ahilyanagar Regional Sugarcane and Jaggery Research Station, Kolhapur Agricultural Research Station, Vadgaon Maval, Dist-Pune Agricultural Research Station, Karad, Dist-Satara Agricultural Research Station, Lonavala Dist. Pune Pulse and Oilseed Research and Training Center, Pandharpur, Dist-Solapur Agriculture Research Station, Mohol Dist-Solapur Agriculture Research Station, Jeur, District- Solapur Agriculture Research Station, Dhule Agriculture Research Station, Pimpalgaon Baswant, Dist. Nashik Pomegranate Research and Technology Transfer Centre, Lakhmapur, Dist- Nashik Regional Wheat Rust Research Station, Mahabaleshwar, Dist. Satara Agricultural Research Station, Gadhinglaj, Dist- Kolhapur Agricultural Research Station, Radhanagari, Dist. Kolhapur Agriculture College Pune
The 46 ICAR-AICRP centers under MPKV are as listed below:
AICRP on Groundnut, Jalgaon AICRP on Groundnut (Summer), Rahuri AICRP on Sesamum, Jalgaon AICRP on Banana, Jalgaon AICRP on Fig and Custard Apple, Jadhavvadi, Dist-Pune AICRP on Sugarcane, Padegaon AICRP on Agrometerology, Solapur AICRP on Safflower, Solapur AICRP on Dryland Agriculture AICRP on Potato, Pune AICRP on Biocontrol, AC, Pune AICRP on Mushroom, AC, Pune AICRP on Floriculture, AC, Pune AICRP on Wheat, Niphad AICRP on Post-Harvest Technology AICRP on Sugarcane AICRP on Small Millet< Kolhapur AICRP on Maize, Kolhapur AICRP on Maize, Rahuri AICRP on Wheat Rust, Mahabaleshar, Dist-Satara AICRP on Niger, Igatpuri