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 (Forestry sub-discipline).
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 preparation that provides active acquired immunity to a particular infectious or malignant disease. The safety and effectiveness of vaccines has been widely studied and verified. against
bird flu. The vaccine was developed at the High Security Animal Disease Laboratory,
Bhopal
Bhopal (; ) is the 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 its various natural and artificial lakes. It i ...
, 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 can cause illness in humans and many other animal species. A bird-adapted strain of H5N1, called HPAI A(H5N1) for highly pathogenic avian influenza virus of type ...
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.
*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 research outputs are distributed online, free of access charges or other barriers. With open access strictly defined (according to the 2001 definition), or libre op ...
to its research.
*2009: New and restructured postgraduate curricula & 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 Journals
Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which research outputs are distributed online, free of access charges or other barriers. With open access strictly defined (according to the 2001 definition), or libre op ...
.
*2011: ICAR scientists were the first in the world to sequence the
pigeonpea genome
In the fields of molecular biology and genetics, 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 ...
. 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 research outputs are distributed online, free of access charges or other barriers. With open access strictly defined (according to the 2001 definition), or libre op ...
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.
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.
While ICAR accreditation is voluntary,
[ since 2016-17 it is linked with the release of grants for education quality assurance for State Agricultural Universities.][ 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. In 2022, students were not accepted to master's degree at ]Rajiv Gandhi University
Rajiv Gandhi University (RGU) (formerly Arunachal University) is the oldest university in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. It is located at Rono Hills in Doimukh town, about nine miles from the state capital, Itanagar. The foundation sto ...
because their B.Sc. in Agriculture degree was from an unaccredited private university.
ICAR institutions
, ICAR has following institutions:
* 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 (AIEEA) conducted by National Testing Agency (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.
ICAR awards
ICAR presents the following awards:
See also
* List of agricultural universities in India
* National Initiative on Climate Resilient Agriculture
* Van Vigyan Kendra
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Indian Council Of Agricultural Research
Agricultural research
Organisations based in Delhi
1929 establishments in India
Organizations established in 1929