Punjab Chief Minister Capt. Amarinder Singh on Thursday congratulated the Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) for being accorded No. 1 ranking among the state agricultural universities by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR).PAU had also been ranked third best among all agricultural universities and research institutes.In his congratulatory message, Capt. Amarinder Singh complimented the faculty and staff of PAU for achieving the feat with their utmost dedication, devotion and hard work. "With this honour, PAU, which pioneered the green revolution in India in the 60s, continues to bring glory to the state,” he added.The Chief Minister assured all help to the university to further intensify its efforts to boost research in developing new varieties of crops, besides promoting crop diversification through allied farming activities to supplement the income of the farmers, who were passing through grave agrarian crisis due to stagnated MSP and diminishing returns on their produce. He hoped PAU would play a vital role in motivating the farmers of the state to adopt crop diversification through its extension services.Capt. Amarinder Singh also congratulated PAU Vice Chancellor Dr. Baldev Singh Dhillon for his contribution that led to the honour being bestowed on the university by ICAR.As many as 57 agricultural universities from across the country were selected in the ranking based on six broad parameters - student and faculty profile, placement of students, publications in high ranking journals and citations, patents, technologies commercialized and improvement of genetic traits in crops. ICAR has begun ranking of agricultural universities with the sole motive of enhancing the standards of agriculture education in sync with emerging agricultural research, technologies and new farm practices as propagated by world class universities.