History
Soil Science
Discipline at Khulna University has both an illustrious past and significant
prospects for contributing to the future. Established in 1999 as ‘Soil Science
Discipline’, it was later renamed as Soil, Water and Environment Discipline (SWED)
in 2017. The current name reflects the areas where the faculty and students can
employ their expertise and are expected to make major contributions.
The SWED
provides undergraduate and graduate teaching, conducts extensive research, and
has significant extension outreach responsibilities. The activities of this
discipline are widespread over the country as the soil, water and environment
as well as their types, nature and processes and extent vary widely.
The discipline’s
early emphasis was on soil inventory and an assessment of nutrient needs of
agricultural crops. Improved natural resource management, enhanced agricultural
production efficiency, and interactions of these factors with climate change
have been issues amply voiced by the public and are topics of continued
scientific investigation. SWED will continue to contribute to these most
important areas in the future.
Course
curricula are designed aiming at fulfilling the regional, national and
international demand and providing necessary knowledge to its graduates to be
capable of carrying out diversified researches and their applications in the
field of Soil Science, Agriculture, Environment as well as Water Management.
SWED has
linkage with SRDI (Soil Resource Development Institute) and Department of Soil,
Water and Environment, Dhaka University.
SWED has six
well-equipped labs (Soil Physics lab, Soil Chemistry lab, Soil Microbiology
lab, Soil fertility and plant nutrition lab, Digestion lab, and Field Lab) and
a modern seminar library.
Since the
domain of this discipline are soil, water and environment, the irreplaceable
resources of the earth, this discipline is commited to produce competent
graduates to face future challenges of utilization, conservation and management
of these as natural resources.