77 Indian Journal of Agricultural Sciences 87 (6): 785–91, June 2017/Article Comprehensiveness of Experiential Learning Programme of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) implemented in Indian Agricultural Universities BUSHE LEKANG 1 , M S NAIN 2 and RASHMI SINGH 3 ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi 110 012 Received: 12 October 2016; Accepted: 8 December 2016 ABSTRACT Education, either formal or non-formal has been viewed as the pillar for human development. Central to the education system is the curriculum which determines what is taught, how it is taught what resources are needed for attaining its objectives. Indian Council of Agricultural Research introduced a programme in 2006 on Experiential Learning Programme aimed at equipping undergraduates with entrepreneurial skills. Alongside the programme, a curriculum was developed to instill entrepreneurial knowledge, attitudes, skills and culture among agricultural undergraduates. This has study undertaken to evaluate the performance of comprehensive Experiential Learning Programme curriculum. The curriculum has been in vogue since a decade hence its evaluation comes at a rightful time. An exploratory research study was conducted in six purposively selected agricultural universities in North India among students and a desk review aimed at inding out how comprehensive the curriculum was. Findings revealed that majority of students were aged between 20 and 24 years, irst born, rural background, general caste and males except for home science which had 100% females. Course content was generally perceived to be relevant and adequate. The credit hours showed that the curriculum emphasized on both knowledge and skills development. The courses with the curriculum provided basic knowledge and skills on management, economic concepts, communication, marketing, technology, numeracy, legal aspect, support system and research skills which are needed for entrepreneurship development. To continue instilling entrepreneurial knowledge, skills and attitudes among agricultural graduates the curriculum should therefore be maintained. Key words: Course relevance, Course content adequacy, Course credit hours, Entrepreneurial knowledge and skills, 1 Former Ph D Scholar, Present Address: Agriculture Lecturer (e mail: bushelekang@gmail.com),Serowe College of Education, Botswana. 2 Senior Scientist (e mail: msnain@gmail.com), 3 Principal Scientist (e mail: rashmi.iari@gmail.com), Division of Agricultural Extension. The growth and development of any society and the development of human resource occurs mainly through education (Singh 2012). Katyal and Bisht (2005) opined that present-day agricultural education produces degree holders and not hard-core professionals who can anticipate and analyze real life work and ield problems and provide solutions on their management. Neither are they conident enough to pursue self-employment. Increasing job markets in private industrial agriculture need graduates who have entrepreneurial spirit and the capacity to independently set up enterprises in the areas of production agriculture and advisory services. They further pointed out that the prevailing syllabus of agricultural education produces graduates seeking white-collar jobs in government departments and are not conident enough to pursue self- employment. Singh (2012) advocated that there was need for agricultural education to respond to the requirements of employment, food security, poverty, economic growth and sustenance of the natural resource quality. In an effort to reorient agricultural education for employability, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) developed and launched a programme named Experiential Learning Programme to facilitate learning by experience for professional development. In pursuit of hands on training, a scheme on creating facilities for establishing experiential learning farms, model plants, engineering workshops, veterinary and plant clinics was launched during the tenth ive-year plan in 2006 (Katyal and Bisht 2005). The units named Experiential Learning Units (ELU) are aimed at promoting entrepreneurship, knowledge and marketing skills through meaningful hands on experience and working in project mode, from assembling inputs to sale of what is produced. The programme is mandatory to undergraduate students in Agricultural Universities and offered during the inal year. Through the programme it was envisaged that basic knowledge and conceptual aspects will be integrated with hands-on training and practice in a real life work environment, leading to more conident, competitive and competent graduates to meet the needs