Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute (NARI) is a

non-governmental organisation A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see American and British English spelling differences#-ise, -ize (-isation, -ization), spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from g ...

and non-profit research and development institute in Tambmal,

Phaltan Phaltan () is a town, a tehsil, and a municipal council in the Satara district in the Indian state of Maharashtra. The town is about northeast of the city of Satara and about 110 km from Pune. History Phaltan was one of the non-salu ...

Maharashtra Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a states and union territories of India, state in the western India, western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the List of states and union te ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. The institute undertakes research and development in the fields of

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...

renewable energy Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources that are naturally replenished on a human timescale. It includes sources such as sunlight, wind, the movement of water, and geothermal heat. Although most renewable energy ...

animal husbandry Animal husbandry is the branch of agriculture concerned with animals that are raised for meat, fibre, milk, or other products. It includes day-to-day care, selective breeding, and the raising of livestock. Husbandry has a long history, starti ...

and

sustainable development Sustainable development is an organizing principle for meeting human development goals while also sustaining the ability of natural systems to provide the natural resources and ecosystem services on which the economy and society depend. The des ...

. The institute was founded in 1968 by Shri

B. V. Nimbkar Bonbehari Vishnu Nimbkar (17 July 1931 – 25 August 2021) was an Indian agricultural scientist and social worker, known for his work in the fields of animal husbandry and agriculture. He founded Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute, an Indi ...

, who remained its president until 1990. Dr.

Anil K. Rajvanshi Anil K. Rajvanshi is an academic from India, and is the current Director of the Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute (NARI). Rajvanshi was born and raised in Lucknow, India. He has been the director of NARI at Maharashtra, India since 1 ...

is currently the director of the institute whereas Dr.

Nandini Nimbkar Nandini Nimbkar is an agricultural scientist from India, and currently the President of the Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute (NARI). She is the daughter of B. V. Nimbkar and granddaughter of Irawati Karve and Kamala Nimbkar. Nimbkar st ...

is the president.

Agriculture

NARI has developed various

safflower Safflower (''Carthamus tinctorius'') is a highly branched, herbaceous, thistle-like annual plant in the family Asteraceae. It is commercially cultivated for vegetable oil extracted from the seeds and was used by the early Spanish colonies along ...

varieties and hybrids for both high oil content and petals. NARI is one of the research centers included in the All India Coordinated Research Project on Oilseeds for irrigated safflower under the aegis of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR, New Delhi). The institute has developed high yield varieties and hybrids of

cotton Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus ''Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor perce ...

sunflower The common sunflower (''Helianthus annuus'') is a large annual forb of the genus ''Helianthus'' grown as a crop for its edible oily seeds. Apart from cooking oil production, it is also used as livestock forage (as a meal or a silage plant), as ...

, and sweet sorghum (named Madhura), as well as technology for producing

ethanol Ethanol (abbr. EtOH; also called ethyl alcohol, grain alcohol, drinking alcohol, or simply alcohol) is an organic compound. It is an Alcohol (chemistry), alcohol with the chemical formula . Its formula can be also written as or (an ethyl ...

jaggery Jaggery is a traditional non-centrifugal cane sugar consumed in the Indian Subcontinent, Southeast Asia, and Africa. It is a concentrated product of cane juice and often date or palm sap without separation of the molasses and crystals, and can ...

and syrup from sweet sorghum. NARI also carries out agrochemical testing for various companies and research laboratories in India to the standards of the Central Insecticides Board for the purposes of registration of new agro-chemicals.

Renewable energy

Work in this field has been mostly in solar and biomass energy and recently in sustainable and environmentally friendly transport systems, ethanol lighting/cooking and handicapped rickshaw. *NARI has developed an efficient multifuel lantern called Noorie for rural areas. *Complete technology for producing ethanol from sweet sorghum has been developed at the institute. A number of high ethanol yielding varieties have also been produced. *NARI has developed a stove running on 50% (w/w) and more ethanol/water concentratio

*The

gasification Gasification is a process that converts biomass- or fossil fuel-based carbonaceous materials into gases, including as the largest fractions: nitrogen (N2), carbon monoxide (CO), hydrogen (H2), and carbon dioxide (). This is achieved by reacting ...

technology for thermal applications has been developed at NARI, including technology for gasification of loose leafy biomass fuels like sugarcane leaves and bagasse, sweet sorghum stalks and bagass

*Technology to increase survival of tree seedlings in arid regions has been developed.

Solar energy Solar energy is radiant light and heat from the Sun that is harnessed using a range of technologies such as solar power to generate electricity, solar thermal energy (including solar water heating), and solar architecture. It is an essenti ...

is used to collect water from soil, which is then fed to the seedlings. *NARI has developed technology for solar detoxification of distillery waste using photocatalysts. *NARI in late 1990s pioneered the development of electric cycle rickshaws in India. *NARI has developed a lantern cum stove running on

for rural areas. *Recently NARI has extended the ethanol Lanstove concept to that running on kerosene. *A YouTube on NARI's Lnstove is available

*NARI has recently developed a very low cost water purification system using solar energy.

Animal Husbandry

The research and development has focused mostly on all aspects of

sheep Sheep or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are domesticated, ruminant mammals typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus ''Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to domesticated s ...

and

goat The goat or domestic goat (''Capra hircus'') is a domesticated species of goat-antelope typically kept as livestock. It was domesticated from the wild goat (''C. aegagrus'') of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the a ...

production. Improved breeds of sheep have been developed which are more productive than the local breed. Also

Boer goat The Boer or Boerbok is a South African breed of meat goat. It was selectively bred in the Eastern Cape from about 1920 for meat qualities and for the ability to survive by grazing on the thorn veldt of that region. It has been exported to ma ...

s are being used for cross breeding to improve meat production of the local goats.

Facilities

*NARI has an A class

weather station A weather station is a facility, either on land or sea, with instruments and equipment for measuring atmospheric conditions to provide information for weather forecasts and to study the weather and climate. The measurements taken include tempera ...

for its agriculture and renewable energy research where all the weather data including solar radiation has been collected since early 1980s. *The institute has crop varietal evaluation as well as pesticides and growth promoters testing facilities. *The Bajaj Center for Sustainable Development, scheduled to open in March 2010, is intended to allow professionals from different fields to work towards finding solutions for the problems faced, in particular, by rural India.

Awards

* Dr.

the present President was honored in 1997 as one of the 47 most distinguished alumna of

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

* Dr.

was awarded the 2001

Jamnalal Bajaj Award Jamnalal Bajaj Award is an Indian award, for promoting Gandhian values, community service and social development. Established in 1978, by the Jamnalal Bajaj Foundation of Bajaj Group, it is given annually in four categories, and usually presented ...

for Application of Science and Technology for Rural Areas. * NARI was given the FICCI Annual Award for Rural Development for 2001-02 * NARI's work on electric and improved cycle rickshaws won the

Energy Globe Award In physics, energy (from Ancient Greek: ἐνέργεια, ''enérgeia'', “activity”) is the quantitative property that is transferred to a body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of work and in the form of heat ...

in the AIR category in 2004. * Dr. V. Singh, the safflower breeder of the Institute, was given the HARDF Award by Indian Society of Oilseeds Research in January 2003 * The Institute was given the Vasantrao Naik Award for 2006 for contributions to agriculture *

was awarded the

Padma Shri Padma Shri (IAST: ''padma śrī''), also spelled Padma Shree, is the fourth-highest Indian honours system, civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. Instituted on 2 January 1954, ...

in 2006. * NARI was given the 2007 CSIR award for S&T for rural development for its sheep breeding work * NARI was awarded the

Globe Award Globe Award is an international sustainability award which aims at encouraging and promoting individual scientists as well as groups of innovators in the corporate and public sector that have excelled in sustainable development in the world. Glob ...

for its work in ethanol lantern cum stove (2009) * Dr.

the Director of NARI was given the 2014 Distinguished Alumnus Award of

. *

was awarded the 2016

for Application of Science and Technology for Rural areas. * Dr.

was awarded the

in 2022 Padma Awardees List for 2022, Ministry of Home Affairs, GOI
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References

External links

NARI website
{{authority control Agricultural research institutes in India Agriculture in Maharashtra Renewable energy organizations Science and technology in Maharashtra Animal husbandry in India Animal husbandry in Maharashtra