Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan gave major relief to students of agriculture and related subjects by making an important announcement on Friday. He announced that from now on, 20 percent of undergraduate (UG) seats in agricultural universities will be filled through the ICAR (Indian Council of Agricultural Research) conducted national competitive examination.
This arrangement will be implemented from the 2025–26 session and its aim has been stated as realizing the concept of “One Nation – One Agriculture – One Team”.
What will be the new change?
- Now students who took Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics or Agriculture in class 12 will be able to apply through the CUET-ICAR national entrance exam.
- Earlier, different states and universities used to set different subject combinations and eligibility criteria, due to which many eligible students were not getting admission. Minister Chouhan said this step will directly benefit about 3,000 students as now unnecessary hurdles have been removed.
Consent and situation of universities
Out of the 50 agricultural universities in the country, 42 universities have already accepted the ABC (Agriculture-Biology-Chemistry) subject combination. Additionally, 3 universities have also accepted the PCA (Physics-Chemistry-Agriculture) combination. The remaining 5 universities require approval from their management boards. They have assured that these changes will be implemented from the 2026–27 session, and efforts are on to start it from this year itself.
Why was the change needed?
For years, due to the differences in admission criteria in different states and universities, students studying agricultural subjects got caught in the web of unwanted rules. Many eligible candidates who had taken agriculture subjects were not getting admission because the universities only recognized subject combinations like PCM or PCB.