All India Agricultural Sports and Games Meet is an annual event and year after year one of the agricultural universities plays host to this national meet. This year Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) will host the 16th All India Inter Agricultural Universities Sports and Games Meet.

This meet is scheduled to be organised between February 22 and 26 at the TNAU campus. The event is organised at a total budget of Rs. 86 lakh, out of which Rs. 50 lakh is from the Central government. S. Jaganathan Commissioner of Police Nashik, K. Ramalingam, Commissioner of Income Tax, Coimbatore, and Dr. C. Sylendra Babu, ADGP, Costal Security Group, Tamil Nadu, are expected to participate in the sports meet.

“The spirit of competition is mostly inculcated by sports and games. Sports competitions are the greatest means to build relationship and harmony among people from different cultures. We are happy to announce that TNAU will host the 16th All India Inter Agricultural Universities Sports and Games Meet 2016,” Dr. K. Ramasamy, Vice-Chancellor, TNAU, told a press meet.

To encourage sports among university students, five students are admitted in the various programmes at the TNAU through the sports quota. Such students are encouraged and motivated to represent TNAU at district, national and international sports meets and competitions.

India has 73 agricultural universities, out of these 62 universities have registered to participate in the various games and sports contests. About 2,500 athletes from various agricultural universities across the nation are expected to participate. There are 13 athletic events for men and about a dozen athletic events for women.

Besides, men and women can compete in various sporting events like volleyball, table tennis, badminton, and kabaddi among others. Students from other universities will be accommodated at the in-house university hostels.

This time expectations are riding high on the host TNAU to win the overall championship. During the 15th All India Inter Agricultural Universities Sports and Games Meet, TNAU were runners-up. Till date TNAU have been runners-up four times. This year all eyes are on long jump athlete Shivani. She is a student of TNAU and is the State record holder for long jump. Sources in the university are confident that she will do well at the upcoming sports meet.