The Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), commonly known as the Pusa Institute, is India's national institute for agricultural research, education and

extension Extension, extend or extended may refer to: Mathematics Logic or set theory * Axiom of extensionality * Extensible cardinal * Extension (model theory) * Extension (proof theory) * Extension (predicate logic), the set of tuples of values that ...

. The name Pusa Institute is derived from the fact that the institute was originally located in

Pusa ''Pusa'' is a genus of the earless seals, within the family Phocidae. The three species of this genus were split from the genus '' Phoca'', and some sources still give ''Phoca'' as an acceptable synonym for ''Pusa''. The three species in this ...

Bihar Bihar ( ) is a states and union territories of India, state in Eastern India. It is the list of states and union territories of India by population, second largest state by population, the List of states and union territories of India by are ...

as the Imperial Institute of Agricultural Research in 1911. It was then renamed as the Imperial Agricultural Research Institute in 1919 and following a major earthquake in Pusa in 1934, it was relocated to

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...

in 1936. The current institute in Delhi is financed and administered by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR). The IARI was responsible for the research leading to the "

Green Revolution in India The Green Revolution in India was a period that began in the delhi and bhoj converted into a modern industrial system by the adoption of technology, such as the use of high yielding variety (HYV) seeds, mechanized farm tools, irrigation facil ...

" of the 1970s.

IARI The Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), commonly known as the Pusa Institute, is India's national institute for agricultural research, education and extension. The name Pusa Institute is derived from the fact that the institute was o ...

ranked First among Agriculture and Allied Universities in the National Institutional Ranking Framework

NIRF National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) is a ranking methodology released annually by the Ministry of Education, Government of India, to rank institutions of higher education in India. The framework was approved by the former Ministry o ...

(India Rankings 2024).

History

The institute was established in 1905 at

, with financial assistance of Henry Phipps, Jr., an American philanthropist. Phipps was a family friend of Lady Curzon, who was a daughter of an American millionaire, and the wife of

Lord Curzon George Nathaniel Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston (11 January 1859 – 20 March 1925), known as Lord Curzon (), was a British statesman, Conservative Party (UK), Conservative politician, explorer and writer who served as Viceroy of India ...

, the

Viceroy of India The governor-general of India (1833 to 1950, from 1858 to 1947 the viceroy and governor-general of India, commonly shortened to viceroy of India) was the representative of the monarch of the United Kingdom in their capacity as the Emperor of ...

. Phipps stayed as a guest of the Curzons during his visit to India and left behind a donation of £30,000, which was used to establish the institute. He laid the foundation stone of the Agricultural Research Institute and college on 1 April 1905. The institute was originally called the Agricultural Research Institute (ARI). Its name was changed to the Imperial Institute of Agricultural Research in 1911, and to the Imperial Agricultural Research Institute in 1919. The choice of establishing it in Pusa in northern Bihar was the proximity to the indigo plantations which were in need of revival following the German synthesis of aniline in 1899. One of the first scientists to be deputed to the institute was the English chemist

John Walter Leather John Walter Leather (26 December 1860 – 14 November 1934) was an agricultural chemist who worked in India as the first Imperial Agricultural Chemist at the Imperial Agricultural Research Institute in Pusa, Bihar. Appointed in 1892, he worked o ...

who had worked from 1892 with the agricultural department in India. He moved to the institute in 1906. However, the institute was damaged during the devastating Bihar earthquake of 15 January 1934. The Secretary of State approved the transfer in July, 1934. The Standing Finance Committee of the Union Assembly finally announced on 25 August 1934 in

Shimla Shimla, also known as Simla ( the official name until 1972), is the capital and the largest city of the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. In 1864, Shimla was declared the summer capital of British India. After independence, the city ...

, the decision to shift the institute to New Delhi at the approximate cost of . to a place that is now called Pusa in

New Delhi New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the Government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Parliament ...

. The director

B. Viswanath B is the second letter of the Latin alphabet. B may also refer to: Science, technology, and mathematics Astronomy * Astronomical objects in the Barnard list of dark nebulae (abbreviation B) * Latitude (''b'') in the galactic coordinate syste ...

, a soil scientist was to be the first Indian to head the institute. The new campus at New Delhi was inaugurated on 29 July 1936, while the new building of the Imperial Institute of Agricultural Research was inaugurated by the then Viceroy of India,

Lord Linlithgow Marquess of Linlithgow, in the County of Linlithgow or West Lothian, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 23 October 1902 for John Hope, 7th Earl of Hopetoun. The current holder of the title is Adrian Hope. Thi ...

on 7 November 1936.

Post-independence: 1947–present

Post-independence, the institute was renamed the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, and in 1950 the Shimla sub-station of institute developed Rust-resistant varieties of wheat, including Pusa 718, 737, 745, and 760. In 1958, it was recognized as a "

deemed university In India, a deemed university or deemed-to-be-university is an accreditation granted to higher educational institutions by the Ministry of Education. According to the ministry's definition, the accreditation indicates, "an Institution of higher ...

" under the UGC act of 1956 of Parliament and since then it has awarded MSc and PhD degrees. IARI has also started its undergraduate programme from 2022 to 2023. What remained of the institute at the original location was downgraded to an agricultural research station until 1970, when the

Government of Bihar Bihar Government is the State governments of India, state government of the States and territories of India, Indian state of Bihar and its nine Divisions of Bihar, divisions which consist of Districts of Bihar, districts. It consists of an execut ...

established the

Rajendra Agricultural University Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, formerly known as Rajendra Agricultural University, is a public central agriculture university under the Department of Agricultural Research and Education of Ministry of Agriculture and Far ...

at the location.

Campus

The campus is spread over , 8 km west of

New Delhi Railway Station New Delhi railway station (station code: NDLS) is the primary railway hub for the Indian capital, New Delhi, and an integral part of Indian Railways. Situated in Central Delhi, approximately 2 kilometers north of Connaught Place, the station ...

. This was initially outside Delhi, but over the decades the city has grown much beyond the campus.

Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute The Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute is an institute under the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) with the mandate for developing new techniques for the design of agricultural experiments as well as to analyze data ...

is affiliated with and is located in the campus of the Indian Agricultural Research Institute.

Schools at IARI

* School of Crop Improvement * School of Plant Protection * School of Basic Sciences * School of Natural Resource Management * School of Social Sciences * School of Horticultural Science

Notable alumni

M. H. Ahmad Mohammad Hussain Ahmad (born 9 January 1946), usually cited as M. H. Ahmad, is an Indian academic and professor emeritus of biotechnology at the University of the West Indies who served as the founding director of the institute's Biotechnology C ...

References

External links

IARI website
{{authority control Research institutes in Delhi Agricultural universities and colleges in India Universities and colleges in Delhi Research institutes established in 1905 Agricultural research institutes in India Indian Council of Agricultural Research Deemed universities in India Agriculture in Delhi 1905 establishments in India