Indian Council of Agricultural Research

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] It is the largest network of agricultural research and education institutes in the world.^[5]

Indian Council of Agricultural Research

Other name	ICAR
Motto in English	Agrisearch with a human touch
Type	Registered society
Established	16 July 1929; 93 years ago (16 July 1929)
Budget	₹7,800 crore (US$980 million) (2018–2019)^[1]
President	Minister of Agriculture
Director	Himashu Pathak
Location	New Delhi , India
Campus	Urban
Website	icar.gov.in

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.^[6] 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).^[7]

Milestones

• 2006: ICAR represented in the First Governing Body of the FAO Seed Treaty (ITPGRFA) in Madrid, Spain.^[8]
• 2006: ICAR 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.
• 2007: Launch of US - India Agricultural Knowledge Initiative.^[9]
• 2008: India-Brazil-South Africa Joint Working Group on Agriculture Initiated.^[10]
• 2009: In December 2009, it announced that it was considering a policy to provide open access to its research.
• 2009: New and restructured postgraduate curricula & syllabi introduced.^[11]
• 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.^[12]
• 2011: ICAR scientists were the first in the world to sequence the pigeonpea genome. 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 Policy and committed for making all the public funded scholarly research outputs openly available via open access repositories.^[13]
• 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.

Accreditation

ICAR provides accreditation to agriculture universities, colleges and programmes, through its accreditation unit, National Agricultural Education Accreditation Board (NAEAB).^[14] The board was established in 1996 and given its current name in 2017.^[15] 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.^[16] As of 1 April 2021^[update], NAEAB lists only 39 accredited institutes.^[17]

While ICAR accreditation is voluntary,^[16] since 2016-17 it is linked with the release of grants for education quality assurance for State Agricultural Universities.^[15] It is also used by some institutes as an affiliation or admission requirements. In September 2021, Goa University has reinstated affiliation to a college, after previously cancelling the affiliation because the college was not accredited by NAEAB.^[18] 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.^[19]

ICAR institutions

As of January 2020^[update], ICAR has following institutions:^[20]

• 4 Deemed Universities
• 65 ICAR Institutions
• 14 National Research Centres
• 6 National Bureaux
• 13 Directorates/Project Directorates

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

Number of applicants by year

Exam	AIEEA (UG)		AIEEA (PG)		AICE(JRF/SRF)
Year	Registered Applicants	Appeared Applicants	Registered Applicants	Appeared Applicants	Registered Applicants	Appeared Applicants	Reference(s)
2019	236,931		31,486		8,374		^[21]
2020	197,837	139,365	28,830	19,946	14,080	9,518	^[22]
2021	144,848	122,993	22,912	20,811	10,046	8,919	^[23]
2022	89,413	61,051	20,650	18,332	13,096	11,001	^[24]^[25]

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 awards

ICAR presents the following awards:^[26]

• 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

• List of agricultural universities in India
• National Bureau of Fish Genetic Resources
• National Initiative on Climate Resilient Agriculture
• Van Vigyan Kendra

References

1. . ICAR https://icar.org.in/content/icar-budget-book-2018-19. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
2. "About us". Indian Council of Agricultural Research. Retrieved 3 March 2015.
3. "Organization | भारतीय कृषि अनुसंधान परिषद". icar.gov.in. Retrieved 29 January 2022.
4. "ICAR-CPCRI strive to bring back coconut leaf craft to mainstream with workshop from Sep 6 - Times of India". The Times of India.
5. India 2016, "Agriculture" p.93, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, (New Delhi).
6. (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 August 2009. Retrieved 25 June 2009.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
7. . 28 June 2009. Archived from the original on 28 June 2009. Retrieved 29 January 2022.
8. IGFRI, IGFRI (December 2006). "Congratulations to DDG (Crop Science)" (PDF). IGFRI Newsletter. p. 1. Retrieved 12 May 2022.
9. "Seminar Details | Think tank | ICRIER". icrier.org. Retrieved 12 May 2022.
10. ICAR, ICAR (8 August 2019). "Partnership and Linkages" (PDF). ICAR Partnership and Linkages. p. 5. Retrieved 12 May 2022.
11. ICAR, ICAR (April 2009). "NEW AND RESTRUCTURED POST-GRADUATE CURRICULA & SYLLABI" (PDF). ICAR News. p. 1. Retrieved 12 May 2022.
12. "ICAR Journals in Open Access". www.icar.org.in. Retrieved 27 March 2016.
13. "The Indian Council of Agricultural Research Adopts an Open Access Policy". The Centre for Internet and Society. Retrieved 27 March 2016.
14. "National Agricultural Education Accreditation Board". Indian Council of Agricultural Research. Retrieved 15 September 2019.
15. "Guidelines for Accreditation of Higher Agricultural Educational Institutions in India" (PDF). NAEAB. September 2019. p. 1. Retrieved 30 January 2022.
16. "Public Notice regarding clarification on 'Recognition' and 'Accreditation'" (PDF). Indian Council of Agricultural Research. 5 September 2017. Retrieved 15 September 2019.
17. "Status of NAEAB Accredited Agricultural Universities/Colleges/Programmes as on 1 April 2021" (PDF). Indian Council of Agricultural Research. 1 April 2021. Retrieved 29 January 2021.
18. "Goa University restores affiliation of Sulcorna agriculture college with conditions". The Times of India. 23 September 2021. Retrieved 29 January 2022.
19. "BSc agri students of pvt varsities in a fix". The Arunachal Times. 25 January 2022. Retrieved 29 January 2022.
20. "ICAR Institutions, Deemed Universities, National Research Centres, National Bureaux & Directorate/Project Directorates | भारतीय कृषि अनुसंधान परिषद". icar.gov.in. Indian Council of Agricultural Research. Retrieved 26 October 2017.
21. (PDF). 15 May 2021. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 May 2021. Retrieved 3 October 2022.
22. (PDF). 19 June 2022. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 June 2022. Retrieved 3 October 2022.
23. (PDF). 17 January 2022. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 January 2022. Retrieved 3 October 2022.
24. (PDF). 3 October 2022. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 October 2022. Retrieved 3 October 2022.
25. (PDF). www.nta.ac.in. 1 November 2022. Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 November 2022. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
26. . www.icar.org.in. Archived from the original on 29 August 2003.

External links

• Official website