Vegetable Science used to be taught within the domain of Horticulture at the onset in 1952 at Ranikuthi at the State Agriculture College as 3-year B.Sc. (Ag.) degree course, affiliated to the University of Calcutta. It continued at Mohanpur from 1958 with a new name called “Birla College of Agriculture”. This college was merged with the University of Kalyani as the Faculty of Agriculture in 1960 and a separate department of Horticulture with vegetable crops as a subject came into existence. Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya was established on 1st of September; 1974 through bifurcation from the University of Kalyani and concomitant up-gradation of the then Faculty of Agriculture. Fillip to vegetable research was given with the establishment of a centre of All India Coordinated Vegetable Improvement Project sanctioned by the ICAR in 1975 and All India Coordinated Project on Tuber Crops in 1976 to deal with tropical tuber crops (other than potato). By this time, an adhoc project on “Vegetable Breeder Seed Production” under National Seeds Project sponsored by the National Seeds Corporation and ICAR has been given to the department of Horticulture in 1984, which continued up to 1993 to intensify the production of breeders’ seed of different vegetable crops. After 36 years of existence in Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya as a specialized subject in the department of Horticulture, a full-fledged Department of Vegetable crops came into existence in 1996 with the upgradation of the department of Horticulture to the level of Faculty of Horticulture, which consisted of five separate departments. Currently Vegetable Crops renamed as Vegetable Science as per suggestion of Fifth Deans Committee Meeting.
Vision & Mission
- An unbiased introspection of the past performance and the clear vision of the future is the key to the success of any organization. The ever-increasing population, declining and deteriorating trends in soil-health, water availability and environmental pollution, loss of biodiversity are the prerequisites for framing future education and research in vegetable crops. Our motto:
- Nurture scientific excellence and promote interdisciplinary, systems-based, knowledge-intensive, problem-solving research to ensure quality education.
- Promote Respond proactively to economic opportunities for the farmers, rural community, consumers and the society as a whole.
- Promote complementary partnerships for value addition in agriculture and accelerate sustainable innovation.
- Maintenance of germplasm of important and under-utilized vegetables and utilization of germplasm for development of trait specific varieties/hybrids of vegetable crops
- Promote ethical conduct, scientific integrity and accountability of performance of the faculties and the students.
Courses Offered
Courses offered for UG students
| Course No. | Name of the Course | Semester |
|---|---|---|
| Hort-101(2+1) | Fundamentals of Horticulture | 1st |
| Hort-152(2+1) | Tropical and Subtropical Vegetables | 2nd |
| Hort-202(1+1) | Temperate Vegetable Crops | 3rd |
| Hort-206(1+1) | Weed Management in Horticultural Crops | 3rd |
| Hort-255(2+1) | Precision Farming and Protected Cultivation | 4th |
| Hort-303(1+1) | Potato and Tuber Crops | 5th |
| Hort-304(2+1) | Organic Farming | 5th |
| Hort-305(2+1) | Breeding of Vegetable, Tuber and Spice Crops | 5th |
| Hort-351(2+1) | Seed Production of Vegetable, Tuber and Spice Crops | 6th |
Courses offered for PG students
| Course No. | Name of the Course |
Semester |
|---|---|---|
| VSC 501 (2+1) | Fundamentals of Vegetable Management | 1st |
| VSC 502 (2+1) | Nursery Management of Vegetable Crops | 1st |
| VSC 503 (2+1) | Production Technology of Cool Season Vegetable Crops | 1st |
| VSC 504 (2+1) | Principles of Breeding Vegetable Crops | 1st |
| VSC 505 (2+1) | Seed Production Technology of Vegetable Crops | 1st |
| VSC 551 (2+1) | Growth and Development of Vegetable Crops | 2nd |
| VSC 552 (2+1) | Production Technology of Underexploited Vegetable Crops | 2nd |
| VSC 601 (1+1) | Systematics of Vegetable Crops | 3rd |
| VSC 602 (1+1) | Organic Vegetable Production Technology | 3rd |
| VSC 649 (1+0) | Seminar I | 3rd |
| VSC 651 (2+1) | Production Technology of Warm Season Vegetable Crops | 4th |
| VSC 699 (1+0) | Seminar II | 4th |
| VSC 700 (0+20) | Master’s Research | 4th |
Courses offered for Ph.D. students
| Course No. | Name of the Course |
Semester |
|---|---|---|
| VSC 701 (2+1) | Advances in Vegetable Production | 1st |
| VSC 702 (2+1) | Advances in Breeding Vegetable Crops | 1st |
| VSC 751 (1+1) | Protected Cultivation Vegetable Crops | 2nd |
| VSC 752 (2+1) | Biotechnology of Vegetable Crops | 2nd |
| VSC 753 (2+1) | Seed Certification, Processing and Storage of Vegetables | 2nd |
| VSC 799 (1+0) | Seminar I | 2nd |
| VSC 801 (2+1) | Abiotic Stress Management in Vegetable Crops | 3rd |
| VSC 802 (2+0) | Breeding Vegetable Crops for Quality Traits | 3rd |
| VSC 849 (1+0) | Seminar III | 3rd |
| VSC 999 (1+0) | Seminar III | 6th |
| VSC 1000 (0+45) | Doctoral Research | 6th |
Infrastructure/ Facilities
• Maintenance of large collection of germplasm of many vegetable crops like, tomato, snake gourd, Dolichos bean, faba bean, brinjal, chilli, pointed gourd, teasle gourd, bitter gourd, bottle gourd, winged bean etc.
• Establishment of DUS centre on pointed gourd.
• Maintenance of different mutants and genotypes of snake gourd.
• Maintenance of different mutants and genotypes having ToLCV resistant genes of tomato.
• Isolation and maintenance of promising mutants of tomato, bitter gourd and snake gourd through applied mutagenesis.
• Maintenance of crop wild relatives of tomato, brinjal and okra.
• Maintenance of soilless/hydroponic technology of many exotic vegetables.
• Development of field, poly house, laboratory and documentation facility for research works on vegetable crops.