The Importance of Higher Education in Agriculture at the Riga Polytechnic School/the Polytechnic Institute

Higher education in agriculture in the territory which is now Latvia began in 1863, when the Department of Agriculture was founded at the Riga Polytechnic School, a private institution of higher education. After its reorganization in 1896, it became a state institution and was renamed the Riga Polytechnic Institute, with Russian as the language of education. In the course of time, the duration of studies was prolonged from two to four years. From 1863 to the 1918/19 study year, the Department had 591 alumni, who worked not only in the Baltic provinces but all over Russia, Poland, and the Caucasus. The students of agriculture came from different nationalities, and among them were Latvians who developed the agrarian sciences in different sectors, wrote textbooks and developed agricultural sciences into one of the main branches in Latvia in the first half of the 20th century. This task is now continued at the Latvia University of Agriculture in Jelgava