Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) and the Food Machinery and Chemical Corporation (FMC) India, Mumbai, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for collaboration on research and science leaders scholarship programmes. TNAU would collaborate with FMC for conducting basic and applied research on field evaluation studies, among others, for new pesticides, herbicides and bio-rational molecules for a period of three years.
Under the scholarship programme, the FMC would sponsor a fellowship for one postgraduate and one doctoral student of TNAU, according to a university release. Vice-Chancellor of TNAU Dr V Geethalakshmi highlighted the need for green chemistry, which is the need of the hour as the world is moving towards sustainable agriculture and non-chemical approach.
She thanked and appreciated the FMC for making the research collaboration with TNAU towards developing new product solutions for better agriculture and sponsoring the scholarships. She also requested internships for postgraduate scholars in the future, the release said as per a PTI report. FMC President Dr Ravi Annavarapu mentioned its contribution to the betterment of the farming community. "We are an agricultural science company. We continue our endeavour to develop and introduce innovative science-based solutions to meet the growing needs of farmers," he said.
With its multi-year scholarship programme, the FMC would offer fellowship for basic and applied research to 10 MSc and 10 PhD students every year from eight agricultural universities in the country in faculties like agronomy, entomology, pathology, soil science and horticulture. Under the scholarship programme, awardees would also be accorded internship and industry mentorship for their overall development in addition to getting preference in full-time employment opportunities in the company.
