Unit 6 4

OUR JOURNEY IN AGRICULTURE AND
VISION FOR THE FUTURE

OUR JOURNEY IN AGRICULTURE
 The famine from 1876-78 led to institution of Famine Commission of 1880.
 The horrors of Famine (1889-90) convinced Lord Curzon that urgent attention must be paid
agriculture. Lord Curzon passed the Land Alienation Act (1900) and Cooperative Societies Act
(1904).
 Lord Curzon, the Viceroy of India with the generous donations from Henry Phipps of the USA had
founded the Imperial Agriculture Research Institute in 1905 at Pusa, a village in the Darabhanga
district of Bihar. The main building at Pusa was named after its donor as the Phipps Laboratory.
[PUSA stands for the donor of the Institute, Phipps of the USA]. There was a disastrous earthquake in
1936 and Pusa suffered heavily. After careful consideration the Government of India rebuilt the
institute at New Delhi. The transfer to New Delhi was completed by October, 1936. The Marquees of
Linlithgo, the then Viceroy of India, opened this Institutes in November, 1936. This Institute (IARI) in
Delhi is popularly known as the Pusa Institute.
 Under the University Grants Commission Act 1956, the Institute (at New Delhi ) got the status of the
Deemed University and Teaching and Research activities were intensified from 1958.
 1947: India had about 27 Agricultural and Veterinary Colleges including the Indian Agricultural Research Institutes,
Indian Veterinary Research Institute and five other Agricultural Colleges established during the first decade of the
century.
 Agriculture Colleges were started at Poona (Pune) and Kanpur. Teaching was the main mandate.
 1921: The Indian Central Cotton Committee (ICCC) was formed as per recommendation of the Indian Central Cotton
Commission (1917-18).
 1926: The Government of India appointed a Royal Commission to examine the condition of agricultural and rural
economy in India.
 1929: The Imperial Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) was established in 1929 as a Society under the Societies
Registration Act, 1860. The Society was registered on July 16, 1929. [After Independence, the name of the society was
changed to Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)].
 1943: The food crisis created by the Second World War and the Bengal famine in 1943 deepened and became the
matters of great concern to Government of India. To meet the food shortage the Grow More Food campaign was
started.
 1945: The Indian Central Coconut Committee and the Indian Central Tobacco Committee were formed .
 1949: The Indian Central Arecanut Committee was formed.
 1958: The Indian Central Spices and Cashew nut Committee were formed. Regional stations\sub-station on cotton,
Jowar, Finger millet, setaria, castor, groundnut, linseed, bajra were established and the PIRRCOM (Project for
Identification of Regional Research on Cotton, Oilseeds and Millets) were started.
All India Coordinated Research Projects (AICRPs)
The AICRPs were born from the coordinated project on maize

developed with the Rockefeller Foundation's assistance in 1957.
ICAR has now about 70 All India Coordinated Research projects
covering various disciplines and commodity crops, livestock, fisheries,
home science, and agricultural engineering.
Function
 An AICRP enables effective utilization of the resources in man and material
anywhere in the country to tackle some of the important national problems.
ICAR Institutes
The ICAR is directly responsible for administering 32 research institutes in
the fields of agriculture, animal sciences and fisheries.
 The Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi, the Indian
Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI), Izatnagar, and the National Dairy
Research Institute (NDRI), Karnal are the three national institutions which
have responsibilities both for research and post-graduate education.
The recent establishment of the National Academy of Agricultural
Management at Hyderabad. This Academy would be responsible for
providing quality training to various categories of personnel involved in
agricultural research all over the country.
Establishment of an Agricultural Research Service (ARS) started on
October 1st, 1975 marks yet another landmark in the history of research
management of ICAR.
Agricultural Universities
The responsibility for research in most of the States is now with the
21 agricultural universities, which perform in an integrated way the
functions of teaching, research and extension education.
The ICAR has recently taken major steps to further

strengthen the agricultural research capabilities of the agricultural
universities through the National Agricultural Research Project (NARP),
which is being implemented through the assistance of the International
Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD).
Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs)
The ICAR has sponsored a programme known as the Krishi Vigyan Kendras,
designed to provide skill oriented vocational training to practicing farmers, in
service field level extension Workers or those who intend to go in for self-
employment.
Other ICAR schemes
 National demonstrations and Operational Research Projects : In 1964-65

 Scheme of Professors of Eminence/ National Fellows
 National Research Centres
 Advanced Centres of post-Graduate Education and Research
VISION FOR AGRICULTURE IN 2020 AD
President APJ Abdul Kalam in 2003 opined that there is need for India to launch a new
vision, which he called "Vision - 2020". To achieve this, they should concentrate on
two mantras:
I. Effective Implementation with People’s Participation
II. Effective Communication for People’s Participation.
A key element of "Vision 2020" would be "Providing Urban amenities in Rural

Areas (PURA)".
The Biological Diversity Bill 2002, passed in the Winter Session, marked a major
milestone in India’s commitment to conservation and sustainable utilization of our bio-
resources.
Agricultural Research in India
 The research thrust areas identified for immediate future are:
 Increasing the productivity of crops

 Micro-propagation of agricultural and horticultural plants though tissue
culture techniques, biotechnology, etc.
 Forage crops for various agroclimatic regions
 Achieving sustainable agriculture through integrated farming systems,
integrated nutrient management, biofertilizers, etc.
 Optimal cropping system in accordance with resource base in dryland
agriculture
 Organic farming
 Wasteland development through agroforestry, agri-horticulture, silvipasture,
insitu soil moisture conservation, and technologies for problem soils
Contd……………
 Evolving eco-friendly, low cost technologies including

biopesticides and biocontrol agents
 Production of quality seeds of agricultural and horticultural crops
including hybrids seeds
 Strengthening post harvest research and protected cultivation from
crop produce losses
 Developing suitable farm machineries and tools to manage labour scarcity
in farm operations
 Strengthening research on new irrigation methods, developing drought
tolerant crop varieties to manage water scarcity
Developing low cost packing and processing technologies to agricultural and
horticultural commodities
 Non-conventional energy resources
Contd………….
 Research on productivity and processing of medicinal plants.

Commercial exploitation of medicinal plants in domestic and foreign
markets
 Setting of agri-clinics and agri-business centres in areas such as soil,

water quality and input laboratory service centre, plant protection,
horticulture, marketing, farm machinery and primary processing, etc.
Agricultural Extension in India
 The farming community needs to increase their productivity through the

mission Second Green Revolution using technological advances. Also dry
land cultivation needs a thrust. The technology is the base item for the
action plan to bring India into a developed nation in reality. Grooming
‘technology’ from seed up to a fruit-bearing tree is an art, science and a
specialised enterprise in itself. The key to success lies in assessing where,
when and how to facilitate entry for money in the process of technological
project realization.
There are many other prior activities, which need to be done if
technology development can mature into a good business activity.
 Another important development was that in addition to rapid spreading of
interest within the actual farmers, the whole community (in the benefited
areas) got involved.
For example, a women ‘Self Help Group’ is being formed for certain joint
cooperative efforts for better quality of life.
 Farmers get considerable earnings (and substantial returns on their

investment in Agro-processing) per hectare. Ever since the Agreement on
Agriculture of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) began to be debated in the
country, increasing agricultural productivity and improving food quality are
being tossed as the only solutions for farmers' survival.
Invariably, at every conference and seminar on WTO, the common refrain
is that farmers are left with no choice but to increase productivity and thereby
reduce the cost of production to remain competitive in a globalised world. The
productivity bug has bitten not only the agricultural scientists but also the
policy-makers, planners and, of course, the politicians.

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Unit 6 4

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OUR JOURNEY IN AGRICULTURE AND

VISION FOR THE FUTURE

The AICRPs were born from the coordinated project on maize

The ICAR has recently taken major steps to further

Other ICAR schemes

 National demonstrations and Operational Research Projects : In 1964-65

A key element of "Vision 2020" would be "Providing Urban amenities in Rural

 The research thrust areas identified for immediate future are:

 Increasing the productivity of crops

 Evolving eco-friendly, low cost technologies including

 Research on productivity and processing of medicinal plants.

 Setting of agri-clinics and agri-business centres in areas such as soil,

 The farming community needs to increase their productivity through the

 Farmers get considerable earnings (and substantial returns on their

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