Indian Agricultural Research Institute

The Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) is the institute for advanced education in agriculture in India. It was established in 1905 as the Imperial Agricultural Research Institute. The campus was originally located in Pusa, Bihar and was shifted after the Bihar earthquake of 1934 to New Delhi to a place which is now called Pusa in New Delhi. The institute was recognized as a 'deemed university' in 1958 by an act of Parliament and since then it has awarded degrees M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees. It is financed and administered by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR). The IARI was responsible for the research leading to the "Green revolution" of the 1970s.

External links

* [http://www.iari.res.in/ IARI website]

It has served the cause of science and society with distinction through first rate research, generation of appropriate technologies and development of human resources. In fact, the Green Revolution was born in the fields of IARI and the graduates constitute the core of the quality human resource in India's agricultural research and education. The Institute has all along been adjusting and improving its policies, plans and programs to effectively respond to the needs and opportunities of the nation. During the fifties, the advancement of scientific disciplines constituted the core program and provided the base for its fast expansion in the 1960's and 1970's in all its three interactive areas, namely, research, education and extension. Besides basic research, applied and commodity research gained great importance resulting in the development of several popular high yielding varieties of almost all major crops and their associated management technologies, which brought about an unprecedented increase in the national food and agricultural production.
* Objectives-- () 03:43, 31 July 2008 (UTC)"Research"
*Emphasize utilization of global plant genetic resources, including conservation of agriculturally important microbial, cyanobacterial and insect resources, to produce efficient, productive and stable genotypes of crops, especially hybrids, and improve bioenergenetics.
*Generate Knowledge related to the processes of production and productivity of agricultural crops leading to the development of research philosophies, concepts, methodologies, materials and technologies.
*Develop and use systems approach, crop modelling, bioindicators, nuclear tools, remote sensing and GIS to achieve greater understanding of the production systems, the resources, the environment and their sustainability and modify them to reduce the environmental and human health risks to make them more sustainable in the context of holistic ecological and socio-economic systems.
*Pay greater attention to the problems of agriculture under unfavourable conditions and to orphan commodities.
*Foster excellence in agriculture related to basic and social sciences, strengthen synergism between traditional knowledge and modern science, and harness management sciences and communication systems for improving overall efficiency.
*Develop capabilities in post-harvest technology, agro-processing, product development, value addition and utilization research on agricultural commodities, by-products, agricultural wastes and renewable energy resources.
*Concentrate on new and emerging cutting edge technologies such as molecular biology and biotechnology and develop inter-disciplinary centres of excellence with modern instrumentation and foster system research.
* Education
* Promote excellence, foster high standard and orient the educational programme towards future needs and opportunities.

* Strengthen physical, biological and social sciences in the curricula and add frontier areas such as biotechnology, computer application and information technology, environmental science, management science and post-harvest technology, and agricultural biodiversity and genetic resources.
*Provide opportunities for post-doctoral research, continuing education, faculty upgradation, and development of human resources in new and cutting edge technology areas, especially through internation collaboration.
*Strengthen non-formal training to promote entreprenurial skills and commercialization of agriculture.
*Extension
*Generate innovative extension models, dovetail them to developmental models, and disseminate them through regional stations, universities and state extension systems.
*Promote client oriented on-farm research and technology assessment, refinement and transfer through participatory approaches and by promoting the Institute-Village Linkage Programme.
*Foster development communication research and linkages with rural development programmes and strengthen micro-planning through inter departmental and participatory approaches.
*Information
*Strengthen IARI Library to become the national agricultural library, fully equipped with electronic and other modern tools, connect it with libraries in SAUs, ICAR institutes and other relevant centres, Build databases on agricultural reserach and share them with all bonafide user throughout the world.
*Add value to information and use it for analysing impact of research and technology development on national agriculture and for setting reserach priorities.
*Develop a modern information and communication centre and the knowhow for dissemination of information, carry out training and promote communication on inter-personal skill enhancement.

*Organisation SetupThe administrative and technical head of IARI is its Director. The Board of Management, with the Director as its chairman, served by four Councils, namely, Research Advisory Council, Academic Council, Extension Council and Executive Council, provides the overall management direction. The Director is assisted by a Joint Director (Research), a Dean, and a Joint Director (Extension) who are equivalent to the Directors of ICAR institutes which are not deemed universities. A Joint Director (Administration) looks after the day-to-day administrative work.

*Research Activities of IARIThe Indian Agricultural Research Institute is the country?s premier national Institute for agricultural research, education and extension. It has the status of a ?Deemed-to-be-University? under the UGC Act of 1956, and awards M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in various agricultural disciplines. The growth of India?s agriculture during the past nearly 100 years, is closely linked with the researches done and technologies generated by the Institute. The Green Revolution stemmed from the fields of IARI. Development of high yielding varieties of all major crops which occupy vast areas throughout the country, generation and standardization of their production, techniques, integrated pest management and integrated soil-water-nutrient management have been the hallmarks of the Institute?s research.

As per the research mandate of the Institute to conduct basic and strategic research with a view to understand the processes, in all their complexity, and to undertake need-based research, that lead to crop improvement and sustained agriculture productivity in harmony with environment to provide national leadership in Agricultural Research, Extension and Technology assessment and transfer by developing new concepts and approaches and serving as a national referral point for quality and standards, the Indian Agricultural Research Institute concentrated mainly its activities on:

* School of Crop Improvements
* School of Crop Protection
* School of Basic Sciences
* School of Resources Management
* School of Social Sciences