Restructuring of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)

UNSTARRED QUESTION NO: 1917

Restructuring of ICAR

MAUSAM NOOR

Will the Minister of AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE be pleased to state:-

(a) whether the Government has held any consultations to restructure the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) to make the organization stronger in the domain of agricultural research, considering its contribution to national economy; and

(b) if so, the details thereof?

ANSWER

MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE

(SHRI SUDARSHAN BHAGAT)

(a) & (b): The Competent Authority under DARE/ ICAR vide Office Order No. Fin/20/2012-CDN (A&A) dated 13th Feb 2017 has constituted a High Power Committee under the chairmanship of Dr. T. Ramaswami, Former Secretary Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India to review the functioning of the ICAR, an autonomous body, as part of the clause V of Rule 208 of GFR, which provides for a system of Peer Review of Autonomous Organisations. The committee has been mandated to review the structure and the function of the ICAR system and the Institutes under it and make recommendations for further strengthening the Organisation. 

ICAR serves the technology and information needs of over half of the Indian population that lives in rural areas and predominantly cultivates small and marginal farms. With 102 ICAR research institutes, 11 Agricultural Technology Application Research Institutes (ATARIs) and 73 agricultural universities spread across the country, National Agricultural Research System (NARS) is the largest national agricultural research and educational systems in the world. ICAR together with her partner institutions in National Agricultural Research System (NARS) has developed a number of technologies in various fields of Agriculture including, crop production, horticulture, dairying, poultry and fisheries sciences as a result of which the country experienced, green revolution, white revolution, yellow revolution and the pink revolution. India is now the second largest producer of wheat and rice in the world and is amongst the top exporters of rice. India is first in the world to develop hybrid cultivars of grain pearl millet, pigeon pea, castor and safflower, and second to develop hybrid cultivars of rice and sorghum. Incorporation of resistance to pests and tolerance to abiotic stresses in high yielding background have enabled insulation of crop plants against these stresses and thus provided stability in food production and food security. Development of short duration varieties of rice, sorghum, cotton, pigeon pea, chickpea, green gram, black gram etc. has opened up avenues for multiple cropping systems and enhanced cropping intensity. Improved varieties of sugarcane, wheat, rice, maize, sorghum, groundnut, mustard etc. developed, under NARS have been used for commercial cultivation in many other countries. 

The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has been alive towards the need to adapt to the changing Agricultural Research requirements of the country. Keeping this in view, committees under the Chairmanships of eminent scientists have been constituted during past decades also towards further strengthening of the organisation. Gajendra Gadkar committee (1972) recommended strengthening of the linkage between ICAR and Ministry of Agriculture, and consequently the Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE) was established. On the recommendations of G V K Rao committee (1988) on strengthening inter institutional linkages, all ICAR institutions were put under the control of 8 Subject Matter Divisions headed by the respective Deputy Director General assisted by Assistant Director Generals. Based on the recommendations of the Johl Committee (1995) a number of reforms were introduced to provide functional autonomy to the scientists on all research related matters. A number of new research programmes in the strategic areas were initiated. Based on the recommendation of the Mashelkar committee (2005) initiatives were taken to improve the research base, ICAR -Industry interface and Scientist-Entrepreneur tie-up. The National Agricultural Innovation Project and the National Fund for Basic & Strategic Research were initiated apart from creating the Agrinnovate India Ltd. to improve ICAR- Industry linkages. ICAR has also developed technical collaborations with various national and international research institutions to address the present and future research requirements of the country.

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