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. The Union Minister of Agriculture serves as its president. It is the largest network of agricultural research and education institutes in the world.''India 2016'', "Agriculture" p.93, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, (New Delhi). 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. 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 The Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE) is an autonomous organisation or governmental agency under the MoEFCC, Government of India. Headquartered in Dehradun, its functions are to conduct forestry research; transfer the ...

(Forestry sub-discipline). A number of natural resource management institutes of India also come under the ICAR.

Milestones

*2006: ICAR represented in the First Governing Body of the FAO Seed Treaty ( ITPGRFA) in Madrid, Spain. *2006: ICAR developed a

vaccine A vaccine is a biological Dosage form, preparation that provides active acquired immunity to a particular infectious disease, infectious or cancer, malignant disease. The safety and effectiveness of vaccines has been widely studied and verifi ...

against

bird flu "Bird Flu" is an urumee melam-dance song by recording artist M.I.A. on her second studio album '' Kala'' (2007). It was released as a digital download in 2006 through XL Recordings under exclusive license to Interscope Records in the US. Cri ...

. The vaccine was developed at the High Security Animal Disease Laboratory,

Bhopal Bhopal (; ISO 15919, ISO: Bhōpāl, ) is the capital (political), capital city of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh and the administrative headquarters of both Bhopal district and Bhopal division. It is known as the ''City of Lakes,'' due to ...

, the only facility in the country to conduct tests for the

H5N1 Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 (A/H5N1) is a subtype of the influenza A virus, which causes the disease avian influenza (often referred to as "bird flu"). It is enzootic (maintained in the population) in many bird populations, and also panzoo ...

variant of bird flu. It was entrusted with the task of developing a vaccine by the ICAR after the

Avian Influenza Avian influenza, also known as avian flu or bird flu, is a disease caused by the influenza A virus, which primarily affects birds but can sometimes affect mammals including humans. Wild aquatic birds are the primary host of the influenza A viru ...

outbreak in February. *2007: Launch of US–India Agricultural Knowledge Initiative. *2008: India-Brazil-South Africa Joint Working Group on Agriculture Initiated. *2009: In December 2009, it announced that it was considering a policy to provide

open access Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which nominally copyrightable publications are delivered to readers free of access charges or other barriers. With open access strictly defined (according to the 2001 de ...

to its research. *2009: New and restructured postgraduate curricula and syllabi introduced. *2010: In March 2010, ICAR made its two flagship journals (''Indian Journal of Agricultural Sciences'' and ''Indian Journal of Animal Sciences'') as

open access journal Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which nominally copyrightable publications are delivered to readers free of access charges or other barriers. With open access strictly defined (according to the 2001 de ...

s. *2011: ICAR scientists were the first in the world to sequence the

pigeonpea The pigeon pea (''Cajanus cajan'') or toor dal is a perennial legume from the family Fabaceae native to the Eastern Hemisphere. The pigeon pea is widely cultivated in tropical and semitropical regions around the world, being commonly consumed in ...

genome A genome is all the genetic information of an organism. It consists of nucleotide sequences of DNA (or RNA in RNA viruses). The nuclear genome includes protein-coding genes and non-coding genes, other functional regions of the genome such as ...

. It was an 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. *2013: On 13 September 2013, it announced the

Open Access Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which nominally copyrightable publications are delivered to readers free of access charges or other barriers. With open access strictly defined (according to the 2001 de ...

Policy and committed for making all the public funded scholarly research outputs openly available via open access repositories. *2019: ICAR has also published an Integrated Mobile App called KISAAN (Krishi Integrated Solution for Agri Apps Navigation) for Farmers of country Mobile App has interface in 12 Indian Languages. *2024: ICAR launched its 'One Scientist-One Product' program on July 16 to enhance research in agriculture and animal husbandry.

Accreditation

ICAR provides accreditation to agriculture universities, colleges and programmes, through its accreditation unit, National Agricultural Education Accreditation Board (NAEAB). The board was established in 1996 and given its current name in 2017. The accreditation serves only as a badge of quality assurance. It is not mandatory, is not a form of affiliation or recognition and does not give approval to open an institute or a program. , NAEAB lists only 39 accredited institutes. Henceforth the

Tamil Nadu Agricultural University Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) is the state agricultural university of Tamil Nadu Headquartered in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India. It is the first State Agriculture University (SAU) of India to be recognised by the Indian Council ...

was the first State University to get accredited by ICAR. While ICAR accreditation is voluntary, since 2016–17 it is linked with the release of grants for education quality assurance for

State Agricultural Universities Agricultural Universities (AUs) are mostly public universities in India that are engaged in teaching, research and extension in agriculture and related disciplines. In India, agricultural education has evolved into a large and distinct domain, ...

. It is also used by some institutes as an affiliation or admission requirements. In September 2021,

Goa University Goa University is a public state university headquartered in the city of Panaji, in the Indian state of Goa. The traditions of Goa University date back to the 17th century,Prôa, Miguel Pires. "Escolas Superiores" Portuguesas Antes de 1950 ...

has reinstated affiliation to a college, after previously cancelling the affiliation because the college was not accredited by NAEAB. In 2022, students were not accepted to master's degree at Rajiv Gandhi University because their B.Sc. in agriculture degree was from an unaccredited private university.

Institutions

, ICAR has following institutions: * 4 Deemed Universities * 65 ICAR Institutions * 15 National Research Centres * 6 National Bureaux * 13 Directorates/Project Directorates * 11 Agricultural Technology Application Research Institute (ATARI)

Headquarters

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

Examination system

All India Entrance Exam for Agriculture (CUET) conducted by

National Testing Agency The National Testing Agency (NTA) is an autonomous body of Department of Higher Education (India), Department of Higher Education of the Ministry of Education (India), Ministry of Education of India. It was established in November 2017 to conduct ...

(NTA) is an entrance exam for admission into the agricultural universities recognized by ICAR.

Number of applicants by year

Agricultural Research Service

The Agricultural Scientists Recruitment Board (ASRB) conducts all India competitive examination

Agricultural Research Service The Agricultural Research Service (ARS) is the principal in-house research agency of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). ARS is one of four agencies in USDA's Research, Education and Economics mission area. ARS is charged with ext ...

(ARS), to recruit posts in the ARS of Indian Council of Agricultural Research.

Awards

ICAR presents the following awards: *

Choudhary Devi Lal Outstanding All-India Coordinated Research Project Award Chowdhury (also: Choudhuri, Chaudhuri, Choudhury, Chaudhri, Chaudhary) is a title of honour, usually hereditary, originating from the Indian subcontinent. It is an adaption from Sanskrit. During the Mughal rule, it was a title awarded to emine ...

Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Award The Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Award was created in 1956 by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) in 1956 to recognize Indian researchers in the agricultural field. The award is named after Indian Independence activist Rafi Ahmed Kidwai. Award ...

* Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed Award for Tribal Areas *

Hari Om Ashram Trust Award Hari () is among the primary epithets of the Hindu preserver deity Vishnu, meaning 'the one who takes away' (sins). It refers to the one who removes darkness and illusion, the one who removes all obstacles to spiritual progress. The name Ha ...

* Jawaharlal Nehru Award for outstanding doctoral thesis research *

Vasantrao Naik Award Vasantrao may refer to: People * Vasantrao Balwantrao Chavan, Indian politician * Vasantrao S. Dempo (1916–2000), Indian industrialist * Vasantrao Deshpande (1920–1983), Hindustani classical vocalist * Vasantrao Ghatge 1916–1986), Indian entr ...

Lal Bahadur Shastri Young Scientist Award Lal (, , , , ) is an Indo-Iranian surname and given name, which means "darling", "precious", or "beloved", from the Sanskrit ''lala'' ("cajoling").''Dictionary of American Family Names''Family History" Oxford University Press, 2013. Retrieved on ...

Bharat Ratna Dr C Subramaniam Outstanding Teacher Award Bharat, or Bharath, may refer to: * Bharat (term), the name for India in various Indian languages ** India, a country ** Bharata Khanda, the Sanskrit name for the Indian subcontinent ** Bharatavarsha, another Sanskrit name for the Indian subcon ...

Punjab Rao Deshmukh Woman Agricultural Scientist Award Punjab (; ; also Romanization, romanised as Panjāb or Panj-Āb) is a geopolitical, Punjabi culture, cultural, and historical region in South Asia. It is located in the Northwestern South Asia, northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, c ...

Chaudhary Charan Singh Award for Excellence in Journalism in Agricultural Research and Development Chowdhury (also: Choudhuri, Chaudhuri, Choudhury, Chaudhri, Chaudhary) is a title of honour, usually hereditary, originating from the Indian subcontinent. It is an adaption from Sanskrit. During the Mughal rule, it was a title awarded to emine ...

N.G. Ranga Farmer Award for Diversified Agriculture Ng, ng, or NG may refer to: * Ng (name) (吳黄伍), (吳 being the most common), a surname of Chinese origin Arts and entertainment * N-Gage (device), a handheld gaming system * Naked Giants, Seattle rock band * '' Spirit Hunter: NG'', a vide ...

* 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

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Indian Council Of Agricultural Research Agricultural research Organisations based in Delhi 1929 establishments in India Organizations established in 1929 Environmental studies institutions in India