Maharashtra Energy Minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule has requested Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh to consider setting up a Central Agriculture University in Nagpur.

"The previous UPA government had decided to establish five Central Agriculture Universities across the country. Of them one was set up in Jhansi (UP) to serve Bundelkhand region," Bawankule said in a letter to Singh written three days back.

"The Vidarbha region of Maharashtra is reeling under farmers' suicide crisis. The setting up of Central Agriculture University here would go a long way in reassuring the distressed farmers that the government was firmly behind them and would help them tide over adverse situations related to farming," said the Nagpur's Guardian Minister in the letter released to media.

An agriculture university, Punjabrao Krishi Vidyapeeth (PKV), with its headquarters at Akola in western Vidarbha, serves 11 districts of the region.

"The demand for a separate university for remaining six districts of eastern Vidarbha has met with political opposition in the past. It would be better if a Central varsity comes up in the centrally-located Nagpur as it would benefit the whole of central India," the minister said.