Talking to Newsline, Featherstone said, “Back in US we run this course as a distance education programme. We use the services of experts from all over the world, and the students are taught by these experts online. We have experts from Russia, South East Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and other parts of the world. The aim is that the students come to know about the needs of food industry and agriculture from the local experts.”

Featherstone adds that the need for specific experts arose after it was found that many US students did not know what is the food and agriculture like of the world outside US. And in the present times when the issue of food and agriculture has become global, courses like these hold a lot of job prospects.

Dr Rajinder Singh Sidhu, a senior faculty member of Department of Economics, PAU, will be associated with the project for South East Asia. Talking about PAU as the choice of Kansas State University, Featherstone said, “ PAU is very strategically placed. It is located in a state where agriculture production is very high. We all know that Punjab feeds a major part of India, and hence PAU has a huge bank of information that comes handy.”

Adds Dr Sidhu, “We have a course on agri business in PAU, but that is more marketing-oriented. The new course is based on agriculture and economics. We will see how this course can be fitted into the curriculum and mandate of PAU.”

Featherstone points out that in the US, this course costs 22000 dollars, which covers the cost of the books, software and other things needed for this two-year course. Students who have a bachelors degree, two years experience in the industry and some knowledge of economics and computers can apply for this course there.