The establishment of agricultural university under the name Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology was passed by the State Legislature in the 33rd year of the Republic of India on 31st of March, 1982 which came into force on 1st of August,1982 with its jurisdiction over the entire State of Jammu and Kashmir and headquarter at Shalimar, Srinagar. With the establishment of Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology (SKUAST), agricultural education, research and extension training units were transferred to SKUAST from various development departments of Jammu and Kashmir State viz. agriculture, animal husbandry, sheep husbandry and sericulture. The university operates on the Land Grant College concept of USA following the Model Act of SAUs evolved by ICAR. It is a multi-campus University.It is a matter of great satisfaction that extremely incoherent and stagnated research infrastructure, an initial customary educational base and non-existent extension education services have given way to an organized institution of SKUAST, which has taken over responsibility of supporting the state in its effort to develop agricultural economy in agriculture and allied sectors. There is no doubt that SKUAST has grown faster than many other agricultural universities of the country. In the year 1998-99, the territorial jurisdiction of the University was redefined by amending the SKUAST Act 1982 under which a separate agriculture university was established for Jammu Division and named as Sher-e- Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Jammu(SKUAST-J). Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Kashmir has jurisdiction over Kashmir Valley and Ladakh comprising two agro-ecological zones. Subsequently SKUAST Kashmir made a beginning by pooling the teaching and research infrastructure that existed with the State government.

Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology was established in 1982 with its head quarter at Shalimar, Srinagar. The basic mandates of the University are teaching, research and extension with the objectives of:

v  Imparting education in agriculture and other allied branches of learning and scholarship.

v  Advancement of learning and prosecution of research in agriculture, animal husbandry and other allied branches with particular emphasis on temperate and cold desert agriculture.

v  Extension education of such sciences for the benefit of rural people of the state.

University is committed to provide food, nutritional and livelihood security by producing excellent human resource, innovative technologies and their dissemination and become a leading University in Hill and Mountain Agriculture.

Since its inception, SKUAST-K has been making concerted efforts to create skilled human resource, develop location specific technologies and to build farmer capacities that could act as agents of change. The quality of instruction in the University is reflected by being consistently among top rankers in ICAR-JRF qualifications as well as substantial students qualifying prestigious examinations like KAS, IAS, IFS, NET and ARS. University is adopting multi-disciplinary and location specific approach to address the issues confronting agriculture development. The focal areas have been to address mainstream production systems, Niche based areas, promotion of hi-tech farming systems as well as small entrepreneurship based livelihood systems such as nursery raising, offseason vegetable and floricultural crops, bee keeping, mushroom, backyard poultry etc to effectively address gender specificities in farming systems.SKUAST-K has developed the technologies that can effectively serve to change the scenario of production systems. University has developed crop varieties that fit diverse agro ecologies of the valley as well as management technologies for crop production and protection besides addressing the areas of concern in allied sectors such as livestock, fisheries, forestry and sericulture. University is also making concerted efforts to conserve the rich heritage of traditional crops that enjoy niche status such as aromatic rice, saffron, chilliers and rajmash. The university has successfully revived mushkbudji under public-private partnership. Similarly, programs have been initiated to revive kashmiri chilli to harness niche advantages. SKUAST-K has been making all out efforts to make available quality seed and planting material to promote high density plantations. In terms of capacity building, University got various centers of excellence in frontier areas of research and has also won accolades for best performances in AICRPs. In livestock sector, university has successfully developed the vaccine for foot rot and is currently making efforts to upscale it in PPP mode. Moreover, the Pashmina production has been successfully extended to non-traditional areas like Kargil. The required infrastructure has been constantly upgraded to carry out fruitful research in identified areas. However, more needs to be done in order to make research responsive to the aspirations of different stakeholders.