The University of Agricultural Sciences-Bangalore (UAS-B) was the first State Agricultural University (SAU) in Karnataka established in 1963 through an act of the Legislature of the then Mysore State. The visionary leaders of the nation realized the importance of modern science and technology and higher education as means to shore up the woefully inadequate food production in the country. In less than a decade of the establishment of UAS-B and a few other SAUs in the country India recorded a phenomenal jump in food production and the English language acquired a new phrase - Green Revolution. The rest, as they say is history. 

It is a matter of great pride for UAS-B to have played out its role in ushering in a quantum leap in food production in the state through a slew of technological interventions in the 1970s and 80s. The unbounded enthusiasm of the faculty left no stone unturned and no crop untouched – from the traditional cereal-pulse-oilseed cropping system to viticulture, every crop got its due attention on innovations in production technology. Several other allied sectors like horticulture, sericulture, forestry, animal husbandry also witnessed transformational changes turning Karnataka into a model state for agriculture, horticulture and dairy industry. This huge impact was achieved despite the fact that more than two-thirds of the state was dependent on rain-fed agriculture. 

While the university’s contributions are truly laudable, we must also not lose track of the fact that much of this was achieved through very important but basic interventions like improved varieties, better crop nutrition and improved agronomic practices tailored to the respective agro-climatic zones. In other words, we had a rich harvest of the low-hanging fruits in the last century. Reaching higher in the twenty-first century poses new challenges; of depleting natural resources like water, climate change, stagnating yields in crops especially in pulses and oilseeds, rebound of pests and disease and the slow pace of indigenous efforts in mechanization, to name but a few. 

Efforts to push the envelope on new technologies to tackle these challenges will be tougher than ever before. Precision agriculture, improved water use efficiency and biotic resistance in crops, molecular breeding, protected cultivation, climate resilient technologies for rain-fed farming, water saving irrigation systems, mechanization for small farms, value addition of farm produce and market access to farmers are some of the key areas the university is addressing through its research within the framework of sustainable farming. The academic programmes of the university are dynamic too and focus on empowering the graduates in appreciating these challenges and preparing them as important stake-holders in innovations for agriculture. The vast network of colleges, research stations and extension centres of the university will be required to play an influential role in this endeavour. 

 The challenges are formidable and the constraints unceasing, yet, I am confident that University of Agricultural Sciences-Bangalore will meet the challenges of the farming sector in the coming years. The years ahead, I reckon, would be known as the decade of agriculture. The future is filled with possibilities - of new approaches, technologies and policies - towards sustainable food production for a healthy and happy world. It will be my vision and mission to ensure that the university leads from the front in realizing these possibilities and fulfill its responsibilities in agricultural education, research and outreach.