A modest institute, called the School of Agriculture, was established under the Ministry of Agriculture in 1957 with the aim of training junior technical assistants in agriculture. In 1968 came the College of Agriculture giving two years of Intermediate of Agricultural Science (I.Sc.Ag.). In 1972, with the establishment of the Institute of Agriculture and Animal Science as part of Tribhuvan University the College of Agriculture was assimilated into the university's technical education system.

The Institute's principal institutional goals are:

• to design and implement educational programmes capable of balancing established and emerging needs of the agricultural sector of Nepal.

• to bring in excellence in instruction, research and technology dissemination and

• to encourage research and scholarly activities relevant to the needs of Nepalese agriculture and farmers.

Currently, the Institute offers three major programmes:

(1) Bachelor of Science in Agriculture (B.Sc.Ag.) of 4 years, (2) Bachelor of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry (B.V.Sc. & A.H.) of 5.5 years and (3) Master of Science in Agriculture and Animal Science.

These programmes are run in the Institute's Central Campus at Rampur in Chitwan. The I.Sc. Agriculture programmes are conducted in the other two campuses. Master of Science in Agricultural Economics, Horticulture, Plant Breeding, Animal Nutrition, and Animal Breeding have been recently started. Master of Science in Agronomy, Plant Pathology, Plant Protection, Agriculture Extension and Aquaculture is being started this year (1999).

The Institute has 3 campuses. The Central Campus is at Rampur and the other campuses are at Lamjung and Paklihawa.

The Institute's Central Campus at Rampur has hostel facilities for students, a big library with over 40,000 titles in collection and a rich stock of journals, monographs, theses and other reference materials. It has three farms: an agronomy farm (51 ha), a horticulture farm (28 ha) and a livestock farm (98 ha). Besides, it has a computer centre, a healthcare centre and a veterinary teaching hospital. A Directorate of Extension has also been established to disseminate information and technologies to  farmers and agro-industries and to strengthen the training programmes.

The research activities at the Institute of Agriculture and Animal Science are coordinated through the Directorate of Research. Research fundings include funds provided by national and international agencies. The research findings are published in the Institute's journal, The Journal of the Institute of Agriculture and Animal Science, an annual publication. The Institute also publishes a bimonthly newsletter, the IAAS Newsletter.

The Institute has links with many foreign universities and other educational institutes. It entertains foreign students, scholars and visiting specialists.
 

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