Adequacy And Relevance Of The Undergraduate Curriculum For Agricultural Economics At The Bangladesh Agricultural University

This paper is divided into four sections. The first section gives a historical background of the development of Agricultural Economics as a separate and distinct field of study. Section II discusses the subject matter of agricultural economics. Various arrangements of teaching agricultural economics at the bachelor degree level in different Asian countries are discussed in section ITI. The final section is devoted to a critical evaluation of the existing bachelor degree curriculum of agricultural economics at the Bangladesh Agricultural University. It is argued in this paper that the study of Agricultural Economics originated in view of finding solutions to the problems of farmers and hence the subject has been in general problem-oriented in nature. It is concluded on the basis of a comparative analysis of the curricula under different situations that the existing Agricultural Economics curriculum of BAU appears relevant and nearly adequate. While it is argued in this paper that there is little scope for any significant re-organization of courses in the existing Agricultural Economics curriculum of BAU, it is admitted that the teaching of these courses has been by and large inadequate and less effective. It is suggested that necessary facilities should be created in order to change the current lecture-based teaching into more practical and learning-by-doing type teaching.