Sub Campus - MahaIluppallama

Established in 1968, this 25-ha teaching, research and outreach facility is 128km away from the main campus and spatially placed at a unique location in the heartland of dry zone agriculture in Sri Lanka. This sub campus provides students with opportunities to immerse concurrently in a learning environment that promotes interactions with farmers practicing the mainstay of dry zone agriculture and the practitioners of science. Students of B.Sc Agricultural Technology and Management (ATM) begin their journey of learning at the sub campus. Academic program in semester 01 is designed to build students’ basic theoretical foundations through classroom sessions, integrated with practical components. Students get guided opportunities to raise crops and livestock in allocated plots in the teaching farm.
MI Sub Campus is located adjacent to Kagama-Katiyawa Irrigation Settlement Scheme, one of the oldest of agricultural development projects within System H of Accelerated Mahaweli Development Program, the largest of multi-purpose development efforts of the country. The area is also rich in historical and cultural sites. It is within the same complex that multiple institutes under the Sri Lanka Department of Agriculture, including Field Crop Research and Development Institute (FCRDI), In-service Training Institute, Office of Seed Certification Service; Seed production farm, Farm Mechanization Research Centre, are located.
Students in small groups engage in a one-semester-long interactive learning activity with host farm-families from among the villages in the proximity. Students also visit selected market-oriented large farms; irrigation systems and government offices. Interactions with agricultural scientists and managers from other institutes in the vicinity through i) exposure visits to institutes and ii) class room sessions with visiting scientists are an integral feature of the teaching program at MI.
Other teaching, research, and outreach resources in the sub campus include; a public agricultural museum and a herbarium; an in-situ collection of native dry zone plants; a collection of plantains and tuber-crops; and a medicinal herbs garden. A 220-seats modern auditorium, a library with an appropriate collection and IT facilities support a conducive learning environment.
The campus has residential facilities for 350 students. The sub campus promotes a student’s-managed committee for food that is a unique extracurricular opportunity for team-work and management skills for students. All inclusive outdoor life-skills building facility is the latest addition to students’ experience at MI.
The overall supervision of the Mahailluppallama Sub Campus is by the Lecturer in- Charge.