Higher Education in Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering

Biosystems or Biological Engineering

A shift from ‘Agricultural’ to ‘Biosystems’ Engineering

Since the introduction of ploughs to agricultural field for carrying out field operations, the discipline of engineering input to agriculture used to be known as Agricultural Engineering. American Society of Agricultural Engineers was established in 1907 and since then associated departments of the universities across the world used to be termed as ‘Agricultural Engineering’ that used to offer Undergraduate, Masters and Doctoral degrees in Agricultural Engineering. With the increasing focus of sustainable agriculture and environmental concerns, bio-based terms are playing a great role in the field of agricultural engineering. The seriousness can be observed in the following changes in recent years-  

These days undergraduate or graduate studies in Agricultural Engineering are being offered from the departments of Biological and/or Biosystems and/or Agricultural or Environmental Engineering.

1. American Society of Agricultural Engineers (ASAE) changed to American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE)
2. Most of the Departments of Agricultural Engineering in Europe and North America have changed their names. For example-
   1. Biosystems Engineeing, Auburn University, USA.
   2. Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, Iowa State University, USA.
   3. Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering , Michigan State University, USA.
   4. Agricultural and Biological Enginering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA
   5. Biological and Environmental Engineering, Cornell University (NY), USA
   6. Agricultural and Biological Engineering, Purdue University (IN)
   7. Biological and Agricultural Engineering, University of California - Davis, USA.
   8. Food, Agricultural, and Biological Engineering, Ohio State University, USA
   9. Bioengineering, Oregon State University, Corvallis, USA
   10. Biological Engineering, University of Missouri-Columbia, Columbia, USA
   11. Biological Systems Engineering (Agriculture), University of Nebraska at Lincoln, USA
   12. Agricultural and Bioresource Engineering’, University of Saskatchewan, Canada.
   13. Bioresorce Engineering, McGill University, Canada
   14. Biosystems Engineering, University of Manitoba, Canada
3.  Journal of Agricultural Engineering Research published from Silsoe Research Institute (Elsevier Publication) has been changed to Biosystems Engineering.