Agritech 101

A workshop titled “Agritech 101” was held on December 12th 2019 from 8.30 am to 5.30 pm in the auditorium of Faculty of Agriculture, University ofJaffna, Ariviyal Nagar, Kilinochchi. This workshop was jointly organized by UBL cell, Faculty of Agriculture, AHEAD operation and group of alumni members of the Faculty (Agro Task Force). The aim of this workshop have an interaction between the farming society and public and private stakeholders related to agriculture sector with staffs and students of the Faculty of Agriculture.

About 150 participants were participated in this workshop which includes around 60 participants from various farming society and public and private stakeholders related to agriculture sector and around 70 students and 20 staff members from the Faculty of Agriculture. Three international participants from International Water Management Institute (IWMI)were also participated in this workshop and shared their thoughts.

The workshop was started with registration of the participants. After the completion of traditional events and speeches participants were presented their current problems related agriculture in the workshop. Around 20 problems were discussed by the participants. Then based on the preference of the problems participants from farming society and public and private stakeholders related to agriculture sector, staffs and students of the Faculty of Agriculture formed different groups and discussed the problems and researches need to be carried out in a prolific manner. Mentors were assigned to each group to guide the discussion in a proper way. Flip charts and marker pens were provided to each group to document their findings. After the completion of the discussion students from each group were presented their ideas to solve the problems given by the stakeholders. The workshop was concluded with the summarization of the event and handing over the memento for the mentors. Based on the suggestions of the participants a follow-up workshop will be organized in six month time.

  • Organized a workshop at Agriculture Faculty with stakeholders, agro based industries & contact farmers with final year students to discuss the current issues & problems in the sector
  • Set up of proposal to award most practically oriented thesis award for the final year students with the help of an independent evaluation committee
  • Organized a workshop for the final year students about intellectual property rights with the help of Sri Lanka Inventers commission
  • Set up a plan to organize a career fair in the Kilinochchi premises with the help of Faculty of Engineering and Faculty of Technology
  • Planned to initiate the formation of faculty enterprise unit and student enterprise club to increase the linkages between Faculty of Agriculture students and agro based MSMEs of the dry zone
  • Formation of MOU between established agro based industries of Sri Lanka and Faculty of Agriculture, University of Jaffna about regular industrial training facilities for students.
  • University of Jaffna establish a stall in the Jaffna International trade Fair (JITF) 2019 held on 25th -27th January 2019. Four fresh graduates/entrepreneurs from the Faculty of Agriculture participated in the event exhibit their products.
No. Name of Entrepreneur Industry name Activity
1Mr.M.RajethanInthira groups Sale of agro based farm implements and goods
2Mr.R.RajeevanGreen LankaOnline business of agriculture based goods and services
3Mr.B.VijitharanCity decorsLandscape designs and maintenance
4Mr.S.VaheesanBravo NurserySale of nursery plants
  • One student did his final year research project in an agro based industry.

Name of Student : Mr.S.Raguraj

Industry name & address : North Lanka Family Foods (Pvt.) Ltd, Iyakachchi, Palai

Project title : Planning and Development of ISO 22000 Food Safety Management System in Dairy Processing Lines of a Food Manufacturing Industry

Period : December 2018- March 2019

  • Final year students specializing in Animal Science developed different animal based value added products as a part of their practical in Dairy Production Technology and Meat Production Technology courses. Value added products includes flavoured milk, butter milk, lassi, chicken meat balls, fish balls, chicken meat burger, fish burger and patties. They successfully marketed these products in annual agros week competition held in July 2019. The target group is students and staffs of the Faculty of Agriculture. They were evaluated based on their quality of the product and marketing strategies.
  • In addition to that 5 students from the Department of Agricultural Engineering were selected to place their exhibits in the National Engineering and Technology Exhibition held on 11th,12th & 13th October 2019 at BMICH, Colombo. But they unable to participate at the last moment due to lack of accommodation facilities.
  • A stall was booked for UBL on 11th Jaffna International Trade Fair going to happen at January 2020 to represent UBL, University of Jaffna