Indian Agricultural Research Institute

About Indian Agricultural Research Institute

The Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) is the country's premier national Institute for agricultural research, education and extension. The Green Revolution was born in the fields of IARI and it's graduates constitute the core of the quality human resource in India's agricultural research and education. During the fifties, the advancement of scientific disciplines constituted the core programme 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. Originally established in 1905 at Pusa (Bihar) with the financial assistance of an American Philanthropist, Mr. Henry Phipps, the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) started functioning from New Delhi since 1936 when it was shifted to its present site after a major earthquake damaged the institute’s building at Pusa (Bihar). The institute's popular name ‘Pusa Institute’ traces its origin to the establishment of the Institute at Pusa.

The present campus of IARI is a self-contained aesthetically laid out sylvan complex spread over an area of about 500 ha. The beautiful clock-towered building of the Central Library of the Institute constitutes the focal point of the campus around which stand the laboratory buildings of various Divisions, staff quarters, students hostels, guest houses, a medical dispensary and schools for boys and girls. The experimental fields, which form an integral part of the IARI campus, cover an area of about 340 ha, of which about 300 ha is irrigated by an interlinked chain of tube-wells and water storage tanks, while the remainder is used for dry land farming research experiments. The Institute has 20 divisions 5 multi-disciplinary centres situated in Delhi, 8 regional stations, 2 off-season nurseries, 3 all India coordinated research projects with headquarters at IARI, and 10 national centres functioning under the all India coordinated research projects. It has a sanctioned staff strength of 3540 comprising scientific, technical, administrative and supporting personnel. Besides the regular post graduate courses leading to the award of M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees, the Institute also offers facilities for refresher courses and short term training courses in specific specialised subjects in Agriculture for the benefit of Agricultural Scientists and Extension workers coming from State Departments, Research and Educational Institutions and other official and autonomous organisations.

Location - IARI is located about 8 km west of the New Delhi Railway Station, about 7 km west of Krishi Bhawan, which houses the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), and about 22 km north-east of Indira Gandhi International Airport at Palam. The location stands at 28.080N and 77.120E, the height above mean sea level being 229 metres (750 feet).

Schools of IARI

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

Departments / Faculty

1. Agricultural Chemicals     
2. Agricultural Economics
3. Agricultural Engineering    
4. Agricultural Extension
5. Agricultural Physics     
6. Agricultural Statistics
7. Agronomy     
8. Biochemistry
9. Computer Application  
10. Entomology
11. Environmental Sciences     
12. Genetics
13. Horticulture     
14. Microbiology
15. Molecular Biology and Biotechnology     
16. Nematology
17. Plant Genetic Resources    
18. Plant Pathology
19. Plant Physiology   
20. Post Harvest Technology
21. Seeds Science and Technology    
22. Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry
23. Water Science and Technology

Facilities

Hostels - IARI is a fully residential campus for the students. Institute has 5 Hostels for Boys (Hemant, Vasant, Shishir, Grishim and Sharad Hostel), one for Girls (Varsha Hostel) and one hostel (Saraswati Apartment) is for married students. These are spacious, well furnished hostels. Apart from hygienic foods, hostels provide recreational facilities including TVs, indoor games, book shop, hair dressing saloon etc. Master of Halls of Residences is the head of the hostel facility in the campus. Students who are given admission in the hostel are required to join the mess. The mess offers simple meals at moderate rates which may vary from time to time depending on the cost of the meals served.

Library Facility - IARI Library is one of the largest and the finest agrobiological libraries in South East Asia housing a total of 6 lakh publications including 1 lakh books/monographs, 3,50,000 journal volumes, 45,000 bulletins, 15,000 post graduate theses, 10,000 pamphlets, 30,000 news clippings, 30,000 reports, and other reference materials. The Library has, on its role, 2000 members, viz., students, scientists and technical staff. It also serves about 8,000 visitors every year. The Library functions as the depository of FAO, IDRC and AVRDC publications and also as the National Depository for CGIAR institutes’ publications.

Biosytematics and Identification Services -Under the insect identification service, 847 insect specimens were identified. Predominantly occurring plant parasitic nematodes from the rhizosphere of peach and apple in the northern hilly region were isolated. The complete ITS region of rDNA of the infective juveniles of Steinernema species was amplified and sequenced.

Phytotron Facilities - This is the first facility of its kind in the country to study the live responses of plants under controlled conditions and the possible impact of climate change and greenhouse gases. It has a self-contained area of 2700 m2, housing 22 growth chambers and 10 greenhouses. The facility is made available for plant scientists belonging to ICAR, CSIR, SAUs, traditional universities and agro-industries to understand the complicated interaction of physiochemical environments and living systems, especially the plants and their pathogens.

National Microbial, Nematode and Insect Collections and Conservation Facilities - The Institute realized  the importance of diversity of biological forms and their importance in maintaining the ecological balance right from the inception of the Institute when it established Herbarium Cryptogamae Indiae Orientalis (HCIO) with more than 6000 specimens and a National Pusa Insect Collection in 1905, which has more than 5 lakh insect  specimens. Later on, an Indian Type Culture Collection  of Fungi (1936) which has more than 3300 live fungal cultures, a National Collection  of Nematodes (1969) and a National Rhizobial Collection (1986) were also established. These collections are national wealth and very useful resources for undertaking taxonomic  studies. The Institute has also developed a National  Facility for Conservation and Utilization of Blue Green Algae and Azolla. In addition to these collections, IARI has also a large germplasm collection of food, fodder, vegetable and fruit crops.
          
Central Seed Testing Laboratory - The Seed Testing Laboratory  of the Institute  has got the status of CSTL under the Ministry of Agriculture and serves as a Referral Laboratory  for all the 96 seed testing labs located in different parts of the country. Regular training programs  for the personnel of the State Seed  Testing Labs are being organized.

Quality Seed Facility - A Japan Grant Aid Project was launched at IARI to upgrade the facilities for seed research, processing and storage through infrastructure development,  highly sophisticated  equipment  and state of the art technology in seed science and technology.  The National Facility is envisaged to provide medium-term  storage for 4.5 tonnes of authentic seed samples of all released varieties (approx. 5000) from the National Agricultural Research System
 
Facility for Protective Agriculture - The Institute  also developed a big complex providing state of the art facility for protected horticulture under Indo- Israeli collaboration in the year 1998. This facility  is extremely useful for students and scientists of horticulture and provides a model for efficient agriculture.
           
Pesticide Referral Laboratory - The establishment of this laboratory is a step towards global competitiveness in generating reliable data, ensuring quality produce, export certification and developing human resources in pesticide residue analysis. All the facilities as per international standards required for pesticide residue analysis in various substrates have been established. Most modern equipments such as UV-VIS Spectrophotometer, FT-IR Spectrophotometer, Gas Chromatograph, High Performance Liquid Chromatograph, GC-Mass Spectrometer, Rotary Flash Evaporator etc. have been procured. The laboratory  is in the process of accreditation for ISO/IEC 17025 quality management system by the National Accreditation  Board for Testing Laboratory  (NABL, India).

ATIC - The Agricultural Technology Information Centre  is a “single window” support system linking the various units of a research institution with intermediary users and end users (farmers) in decision making and problem solving exercise.

Krishi Vigyan Kendra- The institute’s Krishi Vigyan Kendra (IARI) at Shikohpur, Gurgaon is playing a significant role in combating unemployment of rural youth through technological empowerment, and improving the farmers’ awareness and farm productivity through various TOT programmes.

Krishi Vigyan Mela - Every year a three days krishi vigyan mela is organised in the month of February in IARI. Various technologies developed by IARI, displayed in the thematic pandal, where some progressive farmers also share their experiences of IARI technologies with the visiting farmers.

Guest House - IARI has three Guest Houses, Ganga International Guest House, Dr Rajendra Prasad Farmer's Hostel and Sindhu Scientist Hostel situated in the campus. These Guest Houses are primarily meant for official guests of the IARI/ ICAR/participants of Seminars / Workshops/ Symposia / Conferences / Training Programmes Organised by the Institute as well as those sponsored by the ICAR. Scientists/Researchers from other ICAR Institute/SAUs/ Central /State Government may also be accommodated provided they write well in advance for reservation of rooms to the Officer In-charges of the respective Guest Houses. Accommodation shall be provided subject to the availability of rooms at the time of arrival of the guests. The Guest Houses provide beddings (bed sheet, pillow, sheet, pillow-cover, blanket, mattress etc.).

Health Centre - The Institute has a medical dispensary centrally situated in the campus. It provides facilities for OPD treatment for the students with 24 hours ambulance service for taking patients from campus to other hospitals. There are two qualified Doctors attached with the dispensary. The hospital is headed by an officer In-charge of the dispensary.

Sports Activity - The Institute encourages extra curricular activities that enrich cultural, physical and social life of students. Spacious playgrounds are provided near the student hostels and necessary facilities exist for outdoor games like cricket, football, hockey, volleyball, tennis, badminton and various athletic events. There are facilities also for indoor games like Chess, Carom and Table Tennis in each hostel.

Scholarships - The Scholarships/Fellowship is offered as financial assistance to the post-graduate students at IARI. This provision is made to assist as many students as possible who have good academic record and who are making diligent efforts to pursue higher education.

Auditoriums - Dr. B. P. Pal Auditorium is named after the ex-director of the institute Dr. B. P. Pal. It has a seating capacity of 350. It is fully AC, with LCD projector and audio-video facilities. Other facilities includes a Control Room, Rehearsal Room, Editing Room and A VIP Room. There is pantry available with direct access to the stage. Its free for IARI and ICAR institutional activities. Outsiders are charged INR 10000 per day with permission from the Director, IARI. There are 9 other auditoriums in different divisions of IARI. - Conference Room IARI Library, NRL Auditorium, Virology Auditorium, WTC Auditorium, Agronomy Auditorium, Agril. Extension Auditorium, Biochemistry Auditorium, Plant Physiology Auditorium and Agril. Physics Auditorium.