Director Message
In 1922-23 Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore started his experiment on Rural reconstruction in the name of Sriniketan Experiment. The purpose of Sriniketan Experiment was to understand, identify and find solution of the problems of the villages of rural India in general and villages surrounding Santiniketan, and Sriniketan in particular. As Gurudeva noted, Santiniketan is the land of peace and Sriniketan is the land of prosperity and these are the twin campuses of Visva-Bharati University. During those days the concept of village survey to understand village problems was a very new concept. In the year 1926, Sriniketan Experiment started its functioning with village surveys. Several projects based on the rural economy encompassing economics of paddy cultivation, irrigation problems, rural marketing issues etc. were taken up for the purpose of study. Rural development and rural reconstruction were also under the focus of the said experiment. Short duration trainings were conducted on different items like how to prepare land, how to select good seeds, optimum use of fertilizer and irrigation, protection of plants from pests and diseases etc. Hands on training were also arranged for the farmers to let them know how to make better farming. In the year 1954, Agro-Economic Research Centre (AERC) was established by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Government of India and the projects under Sriniketan Experiment came under the purview of AERC. AERC from its early stage of functioning to its present stage has completed many studies on different issues of agriculture like livelihood, food and nutritional security, cost of cultivation of different crops, marketing possibilities of different produces etc. The catchment areas under this centre are West Bengal, Sikkim, Andaman and Nicobar islands. Over all, the centre has found its place in the national scenario for conducting village level studies and prescribing different policy decisions. It is worth mentioning that different eminent economists like Prof. Amartya Sen, Prof. Ashok Rudra, Prof. Samar Kumar Dutta and others have used this centre for their research studies. Hope that this centre will flourish more in its endeavour in future.
