The University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore is a pioneer agricultural
university in India to create a separate and independent department of
Agricultural Microbiology in 1966. The mandate of the department then was
to train students at undergraduate and postgraduate levels.
Dr. G. Rangaswami served as Professor and Head of this Department till 1971.
He was instrumental in creating the basic infrastructure for teaching and
research and was primarily responsible for training several leading soil
microbiologists of India today. This department is recognized as one of the
best departments among those imparting instruction, training and conducting
research in the area of Agricultural Microbiology in India.
This department has received research funding from various state, national and
international funding agencies. An UNDP review committee has highly appreciated
the research contribution of the department in their plant protection programme.
Further, at regular intervals training programmes for officials of the state
department of agriculture, farmers and junior level researchers are conducted.
Currently, courses such as, General Microbiology, Soil Microbiology,
Applied Microbiology, Mushroom production and Forest Microbiology,
are offered at the undergraduate level.
The courses at the post graduate level are Microbial Ecology, Fundamentals of
Microbiology, Microbial Physiology, Microbial Taxonomy, Microbial Genetics,
Soil Microbiology, Microbial Biotechnology, Food Microbiology, Insect Microbiology,
Environmental Microbiology and Industrial Microbiology. Further, few specialized
courses of 700 series such as, Advanced Soil Microbiology, Autotrophic Microorganisms,
Microbial Inoculants in Agriculture and Decomposition of Organic Wastes are also
offered at the postgraduate level.
Till now 282 M.Sc. students and 94 Ph. D. students have graduated from this department.
A large number of students graduated from this department have been placed at
the premier research and development institutions in India and have been successful
in securing admission for higher studies in various universities abroad.
FACILITIES AVAILABLE
This department has excellent and separate laboratory facilities
for training post graduate and undergraduate students.
A well equipped greenhouse and field house facility is
available for conducting pot culture and field trials.
Further, extension wing of the university offers
adequate opportunity for testing a technology developed
in lab under farmer’s field conditions.
Laboratory facilities are available for isolation, pure culturing
and mass multiplication of microorganisms used as microbial
inoculant (biofertilizers). Recently, laboratory facilities to conduct
research in the areas of microbial genetics and biotechnology are being established.
The department is equipped with microscopes, gas-chromatographs,
spectrophotometers, lyophilizer, nitrogen analysers and autoradiographic,
microphotographic and computer facilities. A main frame computer facility
is available for use of students and faculty.
A centrally air-conditioned facility was recently created to pursue
research in biotechnological aspects of mushroom production.
