INDIAN COUNCIL OF AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH – ICAR

The Indian Council of Agriculture and Research (ICAR) is an independent organization of the Department of Agriculture Research and Education (DARE), Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Government of India. It is also known as Imperial Council of India. ICAR was established on 16^th July 1929. It was registered as a registered society under the Society Registration Act, 1860, according to the report of the Royal Commission on Agriculture. The ICAR has its headquarters in New Delhi.

The Council is the biggest body for Co-coordinating, guiding and managing research and education in agriculture. It includes horticulture, fisheries and animal sciences in the whole country, with 101 ICAR institutes and 71 agricultural universities. ICAR is the largest national agricultural systems in the world.

The ICAR has played an important role in Green Revolution and subsequent developments in agriculture in India through its research and technology development. The ICAR has enabled the country to increase the production of food grains by 5 times, horticulture crops by 9.5 times, fish by 12.5 times, milk by 7.8 times and eggs by 39 times since 1951 to 2014, thus making a visible impact on the national food and nutritional security.

The ICAR played an important role in promoting excellence in higher education and also engaged in cutting-edge areas of science and technology development. ICAR’s scientists are internationally acknowledged in their fields.

MILESTONE:-

1. Initiation of the first All-India Co-Ordinated Research Project on Maize in 1957.
2. Status of Deemed University accorded to IARI in 1958.
3. Establishment of the first State Agricultural University on Land grant pattern at Pantnagar in 1960.
4. Placement of different agricultural research institutes under the purview of ICAR in 1966.
5. Creation of Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE) in the Ministry of Agriculture in 1973.
6. The opening of First Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) at Puducherry (Pondicherry) in 1974.
7. Establishment of Agricultural Research Services and Agricultural Scientists Recruitment Board in 1975.
8. Launching of Lab-to-Land programme and the National Agricultural Research Project (NARP) in 1979.
9. Initiation of Institution-Village Linkage Programme (IVLP) in 1995.
10. Establishment of National Gene Bank at New Delhi in 1996.
11. The ICAR was awarded the KING BAUDOUIN Award in 1989 for its valuable contribution to the Green Revolution.
12. The ICAR was again awarded KING BAUDOUIN Award in 2004 for research and development efforts made under the partnership of Rice-Wheat consortium.
13. Launching of National Agricultural Technology Project (NATP) in 1998 and National Agricultural Innovation Project (NAIP) in 2005.

MANDATE:-

1. Plan, Undertake, Co-ordinate and Promote Research and Technology Development for Sustainable Agriculture.
2. Aid, Impart and Co-ordinate Agricultural Education to enable Quality Human Resources Development.
3. Frontline Extention for technology application, adoption, knowledge management and capacity development for agri-based rural development.
4. Policy, Cooperation, and consultancy in Agricultural  Research Education and Extension.

INSTITUTION:-