MASU:

Madras Agricultural Students Union (MASU) started in the year 1911 was registered as a Society during 1923 (Registration No.1/1923 -24). The first President of MASU was Mr. Cecil Wood, the first Vice-President was Mr. De Silva and the first Secretary and Editor MAJ was Mr. Ramaswamy Sivan. Several distinguished agriculture research scientists from Southern India, including Dr.M.S.Swaminathan, have served as members and officials in MASU. The Society has been functioning without a break from its inception. Presently (2011), MASU has 603 life and annual members from various parts of the country besides 4500 student members. .

It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.

About MASU:

• Orgin
• objects
• Promise of the Founders

• 2012

  Partner with Madras Agric.J

  • In the year 2012, the Secretary signed an agreement with EBSCO Host, USA World’s Leading Database provider for more than 10,000 Journals.
  • The EBSCO offered to partner with MAJ, mainly due to the century old service of MAJ to the farming community.
  • Currently, the Journal receives around 250 articles yearly of which around 150 are published. As compared to the early years, the journal has recorded three fold increase in the number of articles received for publication.
• 2011

  NAAS Rating

  • In the year 2011 onwards, MASU owned a separate server to host the contents of all the issues of MAJ publication other events of MASU.
  • In the same year, MAJ was rated with 4 points by NAAS, New Delhi.
• 2010

  Indexing

  • In 2010, the Editor-in-Chief signed an agreement with CAB International to be in partnership for indexing the abstracts and make available the contents of publication.
  • The Journal is indexed in AGRICOLA, CAB International, Biological Abstracts, ever since they are abstracting.
• 2008

  Directory of Open Access

  • In the year 2008, the MAJ joined the ‘Directory of Open Access’ Journals, Lund, Germany.
• 2006

  Google website/

  • Since 2006, the contents of MAJ from 1981, to till date are available in the Google website
• 2005

  Library collaboration

  • In 2005, MAJ Editorial Board and the TNAU Library collaborated and documented the issues from 1928 to 2005 and made it available as soft copy in PDF format.
  • Now it is updated to 2012.
• 1961

  50th Year of MASU

  • Land Mark Event: MASU, as a Union of learned men, enjoyed a special reputation among the elite of Tamil Nadu.
  • Infact the “Golden Jubilee Year of the MAJ in 1961” was celebrated by publishing a excellent compendium “Advances in Agricultural Sciences” contained articles contributed stalwarts like

    B.P Pal, DG, ICAR,
    K. Ramiah, Father of Rice Breeding,
    M. S. Swaminathan (Father of Green Revolution),
    Y.B. Morachan, B. Ramamoorthy (Soil Physicist),
    M.S. Randhawa,
    K. Ramakrishnan (Pathologist),
    and many more dignitaries.

  • The Land Mark event was attended by none other than the Chief Minister Mr. M. Bhaktavatsalam, the then Union Agriculture Ministers, Mr. C. Subramanian, and the then Vice-President of ICAR, Mr. V. Shankar.
• 1924

  Rename

  • In 1924, it was renamed as “ Madras Agricultural Journal”. In the same year the issues received the ISSN No. 0024-9602 as the first Agricultural Journal in India to get the ISSN Number.
  • On account of its appearance, the Journal changed from demy size of 1920-40, to half A3 size between 1940 and 1990 and from 2008 onwards it is published in A4 size.
• 1923

  The Journal of the ‘Madras Agricultural Students Union

  • Originally until 1923, the publication was called as “The Journal of the ‘Madras Agricultural Students Union’.
• 1914

  Periodical Changes

  • Till November 1914, the journal was issued as a Quarterly. Since 1915, the Journal was published as a non-stop Monthly output depicting the various aspects of life styles, agriculture, social events, student events, etc.
  • Referring to the periodical changes in the format of the Journal, the then Editor, Mr. C. Narayana Ayyar stated in 1917, that “There are intend rapid changes but we live in rapidly changing times”. Currently the Journal is published as a quarterly.