Brief History of Department
The Department of Farm Machinery and Power Engineering came into existence in the year 1983. As a main branch of the Agricultural Engineering, the Department of Farm machinery and Power Engineering had been engaged in teaching to under graduate students since the start of Bachelor of Engineering programme in 1967. Courses related to basic mechanical engineering like Workshop practice, Thermodynamics, Heat engines, Machine drawing and graphics, Machine shop practice, Production technology, Theory of machines, Machine design, Reliability Engineering, System engineering etc. and also the basic Farm Machinery and power courses are being offered to B. Tech. (Agril. Engg.), B.Sc (Ag), B.Sc (Forestry), and B.Sc (Horticulture) programme.
The PG and PhD programme were started in the department from 1983 and 2003 respectively. Both PG and PhD programmes comprise of course work and research. Department since inception has granted 145 M.Tech. and 32 Ph.D. degrees. In addition to the above teaching works the department is also doing needy research, training and extension activities beneficial to the farming community of Madhya Pradesh and India. Department is also engaged in the research work with International organizations to meet the global food demand.
The department started functioning as soon as the College of Agricultural Engineering was started. The first Head of the Department was Prof. S. R. Raje. The successors were Prof. S.P. Dongare, Dr. R. A. Ram, Dr. V. C. Singh and presently Dr. Atul Kumar Shrivastava is shouldering the responsibility.
Vision
To provide scientific basis for enhancing and sustaining productivity in the farming sector with modern agricultural engineering technologies, to improve food security, safety and quality by excellency in education, research, information dissemination and industrial liaison.
Mandate
Teaching:
To impart knowledge and quality education of Farm Machinery and Power to the students in order to produce good engineering human resources for the society.
Research:
To design, develop and manufacture different tools, farm machineries and equipment for increasing productivity of farm labour as well as drought animals with aim to reduce drudgery, bring timeliness in operations, ensure quality farm operations, safety during work, reduce production costs and ultimately to enhance production and productivity of farmers in sustainable manner with modern agricultural technology.
Extension:
To identify the gaps in the Farm machinery technology developed by SAUs, ICAR institutions, industries etc and technology available at farmers field and to minimize them through proper extension services. To study the present status of the farm mechanization in the agriculture of state and to increase the level of farm mechanization in the state through proper extension activities in collaboration with the state, central institutions and industries.