New Delhi: The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) has halved the fees for ten programmes in its school of agriculture for candidates below the poverty line, rural youth and women, university officials said.

"Of these courses five are diploma and five are certificate categories, which are high yield and vocation-oriented. The learners will be admitted in these programmes at a concession of 50 percent outright from the session beginning July 2009," an IGNOU official said.

The programmes in diploma category are in value-added products from fruits and vegetables, dairy technology, meat technology, production of value-added products from cereals, pulses and oilseeds, fish product technology.

The certificate courses are in sericulture (silk farming), organic farming, water harvesting and management, poultry farming and bee-keeping.

According to the official at a recent meeting of the IGNOU Academic Council, the school reported that the target group for these programmes are youth and women from rural areas and below the poverty line families, who cannot afford the full programme fee. The council agreed with the proposal for the waiver.

Following the decision, Vice Chancellor V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai immediately announced a waiver of 50 percent of fees for each these programmes. IANS