Gujarat Agricultural University, (GAU) was founded in 1972 as one of the prestigious State Agricultural Universities in India. It was located at approximately 30 km from the town of Palanpur in the Banaskantha District of Gujarat. Since 2004, the GAU has been split into four separate university campuses.

The Gujarat Agricultural University started functioning with effect from June 1972, with specific mandates for promoting productivity of agriculture through the pursuance of research in agriculture and allied sciences. The particular feature of the GAU was that it was a multi-campus University, with additional campuses located at Junagadh, Navsari and Anand. The Gujarat Agricultural University had 11 constituent colleges located in different faculties which undertook undergraduate and postgraduate teaching under a semester system.

The total number of students, graduated from the Gujarat Agricultural University (Till 1996) were 8532 in Agriculture, Veterinary Science, Dairy Science, Agricultural Engineering, Horticulture and Forestry, Home Science and Fisheries. 2159 students have obtained Masters and 393 have acquired their PhD degrees.

The four campuses of Gujarat Agricultural University were converted into four different universities on 1 May 2025 by the Gujarat Government through the Gujarat Agricultural Universities Act 2004. Now the Sardar Krushinagar campus which is located in Dantiwada Taluka has three colleges (C.P.College of Agriculture, College of veterinary and Animal Husbandry, Aspee college of Home science).

The other three campuses which were converted into universities from GAU are Anand Agricultural University, Anand; Navsari Agricultural University, Navsari; and Junagadh Agricultural University, Junagadh.