Mahatma Phule Krishi Vidyapeeth (MPKV) is a state public agricultural university located at Rahuri in the Ahilyanagar district (formerly Ahmednagar district) of Maharashtra, India. It is one of the four agricultural universities of Maharashtra and is responsible for agricultural education, research, and extension activities across a designated zone of the state. The university is named after the 19th-century social reformer Mahatma Jotirao Phule.
| Field | Details |
|---|---|
| Name | Mahatma Phule Krishi Vidyapeeth |
| Abbreviation | MPKV |
| Type | State public university |
| Focus | Agricultural sciences, education, research and extension |
| Location | Rahuri, Ahilyanagar district, Maharashtra, India |
| Named after | Mahatma Jotirao Phule |
| State | Maharashtra |
Agricultural higher education in Maharashtra was reorganised in the late 1960s following the recommendations of national committees that proposed the creation of state agricultural universities on the land-grant model. As part of this reorganisation, separate agricultural universities were established to serve different agro-climatic regions of the state. MPKV was set up to cater to the western Maharashtra region, an area characterised by a mix of irrigated and rainfed farming, sugarcane cultivation, horticulture, and dairy.
The university operates from a main campus at Rahuri, situated between Ahilyanagar and Nashik on the Pune–Nashik corridor. Rahuri's location in the Pravara river basin and its proximity to canal-irrigated tracts made it a suitable site for an agricultural research university.
MPKV offers undergraduate, postgraduate, and doctoral programmes in disciplines that include agriculture, horticulture, agricultural engineering, agricultural biotechnology, food technology, and allied sciences. In addition to its main campus colleges at Rahuri, the university has constituent and affiliated colleges of agriculture and allied disciplines spread across the districts that fall under its jurisdiction in western Maharashtra.
The university maintains a network of research stations and All India Coordinated Research Project (AICRP) centres covering crops and topics relevant to the region, such as sugarcane, sorghum, pulses, oilseeds, fruits, vegetables, dryland farming, and irrigation management. It has been associated with the release of improved crop varieties and farm implements suited to Maharashtra's farming conditions.
Extension activities are carried out through Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs), training programmes for farmers, demonstration farms, and the periodic Krishi Din and Krishi Pradarshan events that bring together farmers, scientists, and agro-industry representatives.
As the agricultural university for western Maharashtra, MPKV plays a central role in the technical support system for farming communities in one of the country's most agriculturally productive regions. Its work in crop improvement, water management, horticulture, and farm mechanisation contributes to the state's commercial agriculture, particularly sugarcane, grapes, pomegranate, and onion cultivation.