Considering the importance of agriculture in ensuring food and nutritional security, Agricultural Engineering Department had been incepted at Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur in 1952 according to the recommendation of the Dhar Committee appointed by the Board of Governors. Subsequently, with the upgradation of its academic programmes, the Department was renamed as "Agricultural and Food Engineering Department" in 1994. Among 23 IITs, IIT Kharagpur has the sole distinction of having an Agricultural and Food Engineering Department, which is comprised of six disciplines viz., Farm Machinery and Power, Land and Water Resources Engineering, Food Process Engineering, Agricultural Biotechnology, Aquacultural Engineering, and Agricultural Systems & Management.Since its inception, the Department has pioneered Agricultural Engineering education and research in the country. It houses “CoE in Precision Agriculture & Food Nutrition”, “Agri-business Incubation Foundation IIT Kharagpur”, and “A. C. Pandya Students’ Activity  Centre”.

Sponsored research projects and development activities deal with Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM), Soil Conservation, Irrigation and Drainage, Integrating Remote Sensing Data with Distributed Hydrological Models, IoT and AI/ML applications for Water Management, Soil Tillage, Climate-Resilient Agriculture, Utilisation of Fly ash, Ergonomic Database for Agricultural Equipment, Renewable Energy, Robotics and AI in Agricultural Machinery, Food Processing Technologies, Rice Fortification, Grain Storage Structure Design, Hydroponics, Application of Emerging Technologies in Aquaculture, Model Pilot Plant and facilities for production of industrial enzymes, etc. The Department has filed several patent applications and transferred many technologies to the industries and various stakeholders based on its innovative research.

Everything else can wait, agriculture can't
                                                  - Norman Borlaug
Agriculture is the numero uno for Indian economy. The Agricultural and Food Engineering Department is unique of its kind in the IIT system. The department has dedicated and talented faculty, which offers UG/PG/MS/Ph.D programmes in varied disciplines of Agricultural Engineering and Sciences.

To strengthen the National Education Policy (NEP), students are encouraged to pursue internships in different industries, corporate houses. The department also encourages multi-disciplinary research and facilities financial support for presentation of research outcome in international fora that ultimately helps in inter-disciplinary and international collaborations. The major domain of research and development includes Precision agriculture, biofuel and bionergy, modern food processing, plasticulture and micro-irrigation, Climate Change, hydrological modeling, ground water management, water management, agricultural biotechnology, pollution abatement, extrusion technology, intelligent and high pressure packaging, soil mapping and image analysis for plant phenotyping.
 
The department has high-throughput equipments, NABL accreditated Analytical Food Testing laboratory, Advanced Laboratories in varied domains, Filed/Granted several patents and published research-cum-review papers in peer-reviewed international journals.
 
With the objectives of Atmanirbhar Bharat (Self reliant Nation), the department would emulate excellent Scientific and Academic ambience in the area of teaching and research for the edification of society and mankind.