Indian Council of Agricultural Research

 First DG of ICAR=Dr.B.P.Pal

The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) is an autonomous body responsible for co-ordinating agricultural education and research in India. It reports to the Department of Agricultural Research and Education, Ministry of Agriculture.^[2] The Union Minister of Agriculture serves as its president.^[3][4]

The Committee to Advise on Renovation and Rejuvenation of Higher Education (Yashpal Committee, 2009) has recommended setting up of a constitutional body — the National Commission for Higher Education and Research — which would be a unified supreme body to regulate all branches of higher education including agricultural education.^[5] Presently, regulation of agricultural education is the mandate of ICAR, Veterinary Council of India (Veterinary sub-discipline) and Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (Forestry sub-discipline). The UPA government has included Yashpal Committee recommendations in its '100 days agenda'.^[6] premier institute of agriculture in India

Milestones

• As of July, 2006 it has developed a vaccine against bird flu.The vaccine was developed at the High Security Animal Disease Laboratory, Bhopal, the only facility in the country to conduct tests for the H5N1 variant of bird flu.It was entrusted with the task of developing a vaccine by the ICAR after the Avian Influenza outbreak in February. The ICAR provided Rs. 8 crore for the purpose.
• 2009: In December 2009, it announced that it was considering a policy to provide open access to its research.
• 2010: In March 2010, ICAR made its two flagship journals (Indian Journal of Agricultural Sciences and Indian Journal of Animal Sciences) as Open Access Journals.^[7]
• 2013: On 13 September 2013, it announced the Open Access Policy and committed for making all the public funded scholarly research outputs openly available via open access repositories.^[8]
• ICAR scientists were the first in the world to sequence the pigeon pea genome. it was a purely indigenous effort by 31 scientists led by Nagendra Kumar Singh of NRCPB. The first draft of the sequence was published in J. Plant Biochem. Biotechnol

ICAR institutions

As of September 2009 ICAR has following institutions,:^{[9][10][11][12][13]}

• Four Deemed Universities^[9]
• 45 ICAR Institutions^[9]
• Six National Bureaux^[9]
• 25 Project Directorates^[9]
• 18 National Research Centres^[9]
• 138 Substations of ICAR Institutes
• 61 AICRPs (All India Coordinated Research Projects)^[10]
• 10 Other Projects^[10]
• 17 Network Projects^[10]
• Eight Zonal Project Directorates^[11]
• 633 Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs)^[12]
  • Zone I – 62 KVKs
  • Zone II – 77 KVKs
  • Zone III – 70 KVKs
  • Zone IV – 79 KVKs
  • Zone V – 55 KVKs
  • Zone VI – 57 KVKs
  • Zone VII – 93 KVKs
  • Zone VIII – 76 KVKs

The Krishi Vigyan Kendra Kannur located in the premises of the Pepper Research Station at Panniyur is a front-line agricultural extension institution. The compact area group approach (CAGA) against coconut mite, Paddy Task Force to combat labour shortage in rice farming, first ever Farmers' Science Congress, pioneering a new branch of agricultural extension called Creative Extension are a few of the contributions made by the Kendra. The subsurface dyke constructed at KVK as part of demonstrating rain water harvesting technologies has become an example of an effective method for ground water conservation.

• 45 State Agricultural Universities (SAUs)^[13]
• 2 Central Agricultural University and
• 4 Central Universities having faculty of agriculture

Headquarters

• Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi

Deemed Universities

1. Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi
2. Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh
3. National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal, Haryana
4. Central Institute of Fisheries Education, Mumbai, Maharashtra

ICAR Institutes

1. National Academy of Agricultural Research & Management, Hyderabad
2. Indian Institute of Rice Research, Hyderabad
3. Indian Institute of Oilseeds Research, Hyderabad
4. Indian Institute of Millets Research, Hyderabad
5. Central Island Agricultural Research Institute, Port Blair
6. Central Arid Zone Research Institute, Jodhpur
7. Central Avian Research Institute, Izatnagar
8. Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute, Barrackpore
9. Central Institute of Brackish Water Aquaculture, Chennai
10. Central Institute for Research on Buffaloes, Hissar
11. Central Institute for Research on Goats, Makhdoom
12. Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Bhopal
13. Central Institute of Arid Horticulture, Bikaner
14. Central Institute of Cotton Research, Nagpur
15. Central Institute of Fisheries Technology, Cochin
16. Central Institute of Freshwater Aquaculture, Bhubneshwar
17. Central Institute of Research on Cotton Technology, Mumbai
18. Central Institute of Sub Tropical Horticulture, Lucknow
19. Central Institute of Temperate Horticulture, Srinagar
20. Central Institute on Post harvest Engineering and Technology, Ludhiana
21. Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, Kochi
22. Central Plantation Crops Research Institute, Kasargod
23. Central Potato Research Institute, Shimla
24. Central Research Institute for Jute and Allied Fibres, Barrackpore, Kolkata
25. Central Rice Research Institute, Cuttack
26. Central Sheep and Wool Research Institute, Avikanagar, Rajasthan
27. Central Soil and Water Conservation Research & Training Institute, Dehradun
28. Central Soil Salinity Research Institute, Karnal
29. Central Tobacco Research Institute, Rajahmundry
30. Central Tuber Crops Research Institute, Trivandrum
31. ICAR Research Complex for Eastern Region, Patna
32. ICAR Research Complex for NEH Region, Barapani
33. Central Coastal Agricultural Research Institute, Ela, Old Goa, Goa
34. Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute, New Delhi
35. Indian Grassland and Fodder Research Institute, Jhansi
36. Indian Institute of Agricultural Biotechnology, Ranchi
37. Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, Bengaluru
38. Indian Institute of Natural Resins and Gums, Ranchi
39. Indian Institute of Pulses Research, Kanpur
40. Indian Institute of Soil Sciences, Bhopal
41. Indian Institute of Spices Research, Calicut
42. Indian Institute of Sugarcane Research, Lucknow
43. Indian Institute of Vegetable Research, Varanasi
44. National Biotic Stress Management Institute, Raipur
45. National Institute of Abiotic Stress Management, Malegaon, Maharashtra
46. National Institute of Animal Nutrition and Physiology, Bengaluru
47. National Institute of Research on Jute & Allied Fibre Technology, Kolkata
48. National Institute of Veterinary Epidemiology and Disease Informatics, Hebbal, Bengaluru
49. National Institute Of Veterinary Epidemiology And Disease Informatics, Hebbal, Bangalore
50. Sugarcane Breeding Institute, Coimbatore
51. Vivekananda Parvatiya Krishi Anusandhan Sansthan, Almora
52. Indian Institute of Wheat and Barley Research, Karnal
53. Indian Institute of Maize Research, New Delhi
54. Indian Institute of Oil Palm Research, Pedavegi, West Godawari
55. Indian Institute of Farming Systems Research, Modipuram

1. Central Institute for Research on Cattle, Meerut
2. Central Institute for Women in Agriculture, Bhubaneshwar

Bureaus

1. National Bureau of Agricultural Insect Resources, Bengaluru
2. National Bureau of Agriculturally Important Micro Organisms, Mau Nath Bhanjan, Uttar Pradesh
3. National Bureau of Animal Genetic Resources, Karnal, Haryana
4. National Bureau of Fish Genetic Resources, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh
5. National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources, New Delhi
6. National Bureau of Soil Survey & Land Use Planning, Nagpur, Maharashtra

Project Directorates

1. Directorate of Poultry Research, Hyderabad
2. Directorate of Groundnut Research, Junagadh, Gujarat
3. Directorate of Cashew Research, Puttur
4. Directorate of Cold Water Fisheries Research, Bhimtal, Nainital
5. Directorate of Floriculture Research, Pune, Maharashtra
6. Directorate of Knowledge Management in Agriculture (DKMA), New Delhi
7. Directorate of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants Research, Anand
8. Directorate of Mushroom Research, Solan
9. Directorate on Onion and Garlic Research, Pune
10. Directorate of Rapeseed & Mustard Research, Bharatpur
11. Directorate of Seed Research, Mau
12. Directorate of Soybean Research, Indore
13. Directorate of Water Management Research, Bhubaneshwar
14. Directorate of Weed Science Research, Jabalpur
15. Project Directorate on Foot & Mouth Disease, Mukteshwar

National Research Centers

1. National Research Centre on Meat, Hyderabad
2. National Centre for Agril. Economics & Policy Research, New Delhi
3. National Research Centre on Pig, Guwahati
4. National Research Centre for Agroforestry, Jhansi
5. National Research Centre for Banana, Trichi
6. National Research Centre on Camel, Bikaner
7. National Research Centre for Makhana(foxnut), Darbhanga
8. National Research Centre on Equines, Hisar
9. National Research Centre for Citrus, Nagpur
10. National Research Centre for Grapes, Pune
11. National Research Centre for Litchi, Muzaffarpur
12. National Research Centre for Pomegranate, Solapur
13. National Research Centre on Mithun, Medziphema, Nagaland
14. National Research Centre on Orchids, Pakyong, Sikkim
15. National Centre for Integrated Pest Management, New Delhi
16. National Research Centre on Plant Biotechnology, New Delhi
17. National Research Centre on Seed Spices, Ajmer
18. National Research Centre on Yak,Dirang, Arunachal Pradesh

Others

1. All India Coordinated Project of Micro and Secondary Nutrients and Pollutant Elements in Soils & Plants
2. ICAR - Network Project on Sheep Improvement (NWPSI)

ICAR Headquarters

Indian Council of Agricultural Research's headquarters is in New Delhi.

Examination system

All India Agriculture Entrance Exam is an entrance exam for students to get into the institution.

Agricultural Research Service

The Agricultural Scientists Recruitment Board (ASRB) conducts all India competitive examination Agricultural Research Service (ARS), to recruit posts in the ARS of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR).

Agricultural Scientists Recruitment Board

The Agricultural Scientists Recruitment Board (ASRB) website) was established on 1 November 1973 as an independent recruitment agency for all the posts of ICAR in pursuance of the recommendations of the Gajendragadkar Committee.

Mandate as per the official ASRB website is follows:-

• Recruitment to posts in the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) of the ICAR and to such other posts and services that the President, ICAR, may specify from time to time.
• Rendering such other assistances to the Council in personnel matters, including promotion, as may be required by the President, ICAR.
• Advising the Council on disciplinary matters relating to personnel recruited through ASRB or appointed by the Council in consultation with the Board.
• Recruitment to entry level scientific positions of the ARS through an All-India Competitive Examination.
• Induction of existing scientists of the ICAR to ARS under the initial constitution of ARS.
• Assessment for merit promotion and grant of advance increments to scientists of the ARS.
• To conduct National Eligibility Test, which is a prerequisite for the initial recruitment as Assistant Professor/Lecturer in the State Agricultural Universities.
• Recruitment to posts in the Combined cadres of Administrative Officers/Finance & Accounts Officers of the ICAR which are required to be filled by direct recruitment.

ICAR Merits & Awards^[14]

• Choudhary Devi Lal Outstanding All-India Coordinated Research Project Award
• Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Award
• Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed Award for Tribal Areas
• Hari Om Ashram Trust Award
• Jawaharlal Nehru Award for outstanding doctoral thesis research
• Vasantrao Naik Award
• Lal Bahadur Shastri Young Scientist Award
• Bharat Ratna Dr C Subramaniam Outstanding Teacher Award
• Punjab Rao Deshmukh Woman Agricultural Scientist Award
• Chaudhary Charan Singh Award for Excellence in Journalism in Agricultural Research and Development
• N.G. Ranga Farmer Award for Diversified Agriculture
• Jagjivan Ram Kisan Puruskar
• Swamy Sahajanand Saraswati Extension Scientist/ Worker Award
• ICAR Award for Outstanding Multidisciplinary Team Research in Agriculture and Allied Sciences
• National Krishi Vigyan Kendra Award
• Dr Rajendra Prasad Puruskar for Technical Books in Hindi in The Field of Agriculture and Allied Sciences
• Udyan Pandit Award for excellence in fruit growing

See also

• Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education
• National Initiative on Climate Resilient Agriculture
• Van Vigyan Kendra (VVK) Forest Science Centres

References