On a field trip to real agricultural fields of South India, are 30 students from Cornell University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) and around 15 students from Banaras Hindu University, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University and Assam Agricultural University.
These students of the International Agriculture and Rural Development (IARD) programme are in Hyderabad currently and their trip is funded by the Cornell Sathguru Foundation for Development.
Taylor Pfeiffer, a fourth-year student of IARD, CALS says, “India is the perfect destination as we are studying about agriculture in developing nations. Visiting research centres and interacting with the farmers, we know that there are a lot of things from the western and eastern methods of agriculture that we can bring together for development.”
While the field trip is a part of their course at CALS, it has also helped them learn about Indian culture. Ariel Buehler, a first-year PhD student at CALS, says, “We are getting to see the top-notch research done here in India. We have Indian roommates and that helps us learn about the culture and the education methods here.”
