Foundation Day: July 16
Dr. Parveen Kumar
Whether sky is the limit for ICAR or it is just another starting line to attain another feat in the series of its accomplishments; only time will answer this. The story of rise of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), an institute set up in the colonial era to revive farm sector in the country is phenomenal, unmatched and unparallel. The ICAR came into existence on July 16, 1929 as the Imperial Council of Agricultural Research when it was established as a registered society under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 in pursuance of the report of the Royal Commission on Agriculture. In March 1946, the word ‘Imperial’ was replaced with ‘Indian’ and hence the present day nomenclature ‘Indian Agricultural Research Institute’. Slowly and Steadily, ICAR grew into one of the largest network of agricultural research, extension and educational institutes in the world. The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) right now stands tall and unmatched. Its contribution in ensuring food and nutritional security in the country is unparallel. As an apex body, the Council is responsible for coordinating, guiding and managing research and education in agriculture including horticulture, fisheries and animal sciences in the entire country. With about 113 ICAR institutes, 731 Krishi Vigyan Kendras’ and 74 agricultural universities spread across the length and breadth of the country, it is one of the largest national agricultural systems in the world. Having played an indispensible role in bringing green revolution in the country, ICAR is now all out to accomplish the target set under Sustainable Development Goals specifically the goal of Achieving Zero Hunger by 2030. Besides ensuring food and nutritional security, it is also playing a major role in promoting excellence in higher education in agriculture and related sectors; engaged in cutting edge areas of various frontiers of science with the ultimate aim of utilizing it for the welfare of mankind.
The ICAR as an apex body reports to the Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE), Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare (MoA & FW) Government of India. The Union Minister of Agriculture serves as its president. Presently Mr. Shiv Raj Singh Chauhan in his capacity as Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare is the president of this auspicious body. The ICAR has its headquarters at New Delhi. The Director General (DG) ICAR is the ex-officio Secretary of DARE. Presently Prof. (Dr.) Himanshu Pathak is Secretary DARE and DG, ICAR.
HISTORY OF ICAR: Formerly known as ‘Imperial Council of Agricultural Research’, ICAR was borne out of the recommendations of Royal Commission on Agriculture set up by the British government in 1926 and was headed by Lord Lilingthow. It submitted its report in 1928 and recommended setting up of Imperial Council of Agricultural Research to promote, guide and coordinate agricultural research in the country. The then Imperial Council of Agricultural Research was established on 16 July 1929 as a registered society under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 in pursuance of the report of the Royal Commission on Agriculture. In March 1946, the word ‘Imperial’ was replaced with ‘Indian’ and hence the present day nomenclature ‘Indian Agricultural Research Institute’. In 1965 Dr. B. P. Pal was appointed as the first Director General of ICAR and he is the person credited with initiating All India Coordinated Research Projects (AICRPs) in the country that paved the way for conducting demonstrations at farmer fields’ all across the country.
MOTTO OF ICAR: The motto of ICAR is ‘Agri-search with Human Touch’.
FEATHERS IN THE CAP: The research and technological interventions developed by the ICAR system in the country has enabled the country to increase the production of food grains by 5.6 times, horticultural crops by 10.5 times, fish by 16.8 times, milk by 10.4 times and eggs by 52.9 times since 1950-51 to 2017-18, thus making a visible impact on the national food and nutritional security. The production has gone up from 50 million tonnes in 1950-51 to about 350 million tonnes at present. The country is the largest producer of pulses, spices, milk, tea, cashew, jute, banana, jackfruit (FAO). It is now second in production of wheat, Paddy, Fruits and Vegetables and 4th largest producer of Oilseeds. It is also largest producer and second largest exporter of cotton. In pulses too, the country is the largest producer of pulses with 25% of the global produce and 27% of the global consumption. If we talk of the livestock, the country has the largest livestock population, 31% of world livestock population with 22% of global milk produce. The country also stands at fifth position in fishing employing 14.5 million peoples in the country. It is the second largest producer of silk being the only country to produce all four types of silk with Mulberry accounting for about 71% of the total, Eri (17.8%), Muga (1%), Tropical and Temperate Tsar (9.8%). The horticulture production has exceeded food grains production, increased by 30% in last 5 years. It is also among the top honey producing countries ranked 8th with production of 64.9 thousand tonnes (FAO).
The ICAR is also credited with the initiating first All India Coordinated Research Project AICRP ON Maize in 1957. The first National Gene Bank was established by ICAR in 1996 at New Delhi and launching of National Agriculture Technology Project (NATP) in 1998 and National Agricultural Innovation Project (NAIP) in 20025. In 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. In 2011, ICAR scientists were the first in the world to sequence the pigeon pea genome. It was an indigenous effort by 31 scientists led by Dr. Nagendra Kumar Singh of National Research Center for Plant Biotechnology (NRCPB). The country witnessed a record production of crops even during the Covid-19 pandemic.
ICAR: AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH SERVICE (ARS)
For recruitment to various institutes under ICAR, the ICAR has also an Agricultural Scientists Recruitment Board (ASRB). The ASRB headed by a Chairman conducts all India competitive examination Agricultural Research Service (ARS), to recruit posts in the ARS of Indian Council of Agricultural Research. Besides, ASRB also conducts National Eligibility Tests (NET) in different disciplines for candidates to make them eligible for various teaching, research and extension posts in different state universities. For admission into the agricultural universities recognized by ICAR, it also conducts an All India Entrance Examination for Agriculture (AIEEA).
ICAR Awards: To promote farming and to motivate the farming community in the country, ICAR has also constituted many awards which are given to farmers and scientists who have done exceptional in agriculture or allied fields. These awards include 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, Choudhary 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 and Udyan Pandit Award for excellence in fruit growing.
Despite having attained too much, there should be no room for complacency. As ICAR has been in its tenth decade having upgraded itself from a national institute to an institute of international repute, there are still some areas where ICAR has to focus. India still needs outside support for meeting its domestic consumption of pulses and oilseeds. There is need to reduce dependence on imports, increase production of healthy foods and also increase production of pulses and oilseeds. Their production needs to be increased by research and increased cultivation. About 60 percent of our requirement of oilseeds is imported. As such, we have to emphasize on developing new varieties of pulses and oilseeds and increase their area under cultivation to achieve self sufficiency in pulses and oilseeds.
Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has contributed immensely in the progress of agriculture in the country during the last nine decades. Former Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare minister, Dr. Narendra Singh Tomar, in his address on ICAR foundation day had acknowledged that today India is surplus in food grains production due to the research contribution of the scientists and hard work of the farmers. As we celebrate 96th ICAR foundation day, it is time to celebrate its achievements as well as to critically analyze the threats like Climate change, Desertification, and Degradation of resources that are looming large over the agriculture sector in the country and to come forward with cutting edge technologies, appropriate strategies and actions to combat all these challenges.
(The writer is writes on agriculture and social issues)
