Biochemistry

Biochemistry courses were initially offered by the Department of Soil Science and Agricultural chemistry, since its inception and owing to its importance, it was later established as a separate Department by the then Professor & Head, Department of Biochemistry, Dr. A Thirupati Reddy, in the year 1993. As part of APHRD project and other ICAR grants, the Department has got many lab facilities for the benefit of UG & PG students of Agriculture College, Bapatla.

The main objective of the Department is to impart basic biochemical knowledge to students, in both theoretical and practical components, which give a better understanding of Agricultural subjects and to understand the inner core of the chemistry of living things (plants)

The Department offers courses in Biochemistry to the undergraduate students of B.Sc(Hons.,)Ag, for postgraduate and to Ph.D students from all disciplines, other than social sciences, as a minor course. The syllabus for various courses offered by the Department, is revised as per ICAR norms. There are two sanctioned posts of Assistant professors in the department, in which one post is filled. At present, the department is offering two UG courses in I year B.Sc (Hons.,) Ag, one PG course for M.Sc (Ag) as minor one & PGS course for PG and Ph.D students.

Undergraduate courses for B.Sc (Hons.) Ag. BICM 100 – Fundamentals of Plant Biochemistry and Biotechnology – 3 (2+1) BICM 101 – Principles of Food Science and Nutrition – 2 (2+0)

Postgraduate courses for M.Sc (Ag) & Ph.D BIOCHEM 501 – Basic Biochemistry – 3(2+1) PGS 504 – Basic concepts in Laboratory Techniques – 1(0+1)

Research:- The staff is guiding M.Sc (Ag) students of other Departments, as member in respective Advisory committees

Facilities in the Department:- Facilities available in the Department include UV visible Spectrophotometer, Oil extraction apparatus, BOD incubator, Poly Acrylamide Gel Electrophoresis, installed in Instrumentation room and other equipment required for qualitative and quantitative biochemical assays of various plant samples, in UG and PG labs of the Department. The staff of the Department is looking after the maintenance of the equipment.

The staff is also actively involved in operating & maintaining sophisticated equipments like ICP-OES, AAS, NIR grain analyzer etc., as Lab In-charge of Crop Production Lab & GIS Lab at Central Instrumentation Cell, situated within Agricultural college campus, Bapatla.