Work begins on country's first Agricultural Museum

Work begins on country's first Agricultural Museum
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

CALCUTTA, NOV 21: The National Council of Science Museums (NCSM) has begun work on a Rs. five crore museum of agriculture, first of its kind in the country, in collaboration with the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR), New Delhi.

The `National Museum of Agricultural Sciences', the blueprint for which was completed by NCSM recently, will be ready by 2002, NCSM Director General Ingit Mukherjee said.

The museum, coming up in ICAR's New Delhi campus will attempt to trace the development of agriculture in India since 12,000 BC till date, Mukherjee said.

In this turn-key project, ICAR will provide the building infrastructure spread over 23,000 sq ft inside its New Delhi campus while NCSM will conceive and set up the museum with projects and exhibits, he said.

"Interesting pre-historic artefacts like charred wheat remains cultivated in the Harappan civilisation, ploughs, storage bins used 4,000 years ago, pottery and evidence of cotton cultivation in ancient impressions will form part of the galleries," Prof Jayanta Sthanapati, NCSM Director in charge of the project said.

Housing hands-on models on a range of themes from the historical perspective of agriculture to its future, the various galleries will speak of the advent of cultivation, how nomads became semetics and how agriculture practices were chiselled through the ages.

The museum would have galleries depicting the scientific practices of agriculture in the Indian sub-continent, the various agricultural calendars followed in ancient India and the medieval and Mughal agricultural practices, Mukherjee said.

"The horticultural and landscaping practices came up vibrantly during the Moghul era and that would make for interesting exhibits," he added.

The new agricultural inputs in the British period and post-independence era, gradually increasing production and finally attainment of self-sufficiency in these areas will be highlighted through interesting models, hangers and exhibits, Mukherjee said.

"We will also look at the future of agriculture with newer processes being included every day," he said.

A special section for children will try and see agriculture from a child's eye. "Most city-based children think flour and rice are grown in posh shopping malls from where moms buy them... we want to wipe off all these misconceptions and tell them where it all comes from," he said.

On the lines of the agricultural museum, NCSM has also recieved proposals for setting up subject-specific museums from Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Mukherjee said.