What is ICAR and How It Works?

Almost everybody has heard of ICAR, but not all know about what it is actually, when it was established, and what it does.

Shipra Singh Updated 10 February, 2021 3:05 PM IST

ICAR stands for Indian Council of Agricultural Research and it was established on July 16, 1929. It is an autonomous body involved in the coordination of education and research in the field of agriculture in India. ICAR reports directly to Department of Agricultural Research and Education, Ministry of Agriculture.

The president of ICAR is the Union Minister of Agriculture. ICAR has the world’s biggest network of agricultural institutes for education and research. They are sprawled all over India.

Achievements of ICAR

In 2006, ICAR successfully developed bird flu vaccine at the High Security Animal Disease Laboratory in Bhopal. This was the sole facility in India that conducted H5N1 bird flu variant.
In December 2009, ICAR declared open access to the research done by it.
In March 2010, ICAR converted its two flagship journals into Open Access Journals. These journals are: Indian Journal of Animal Sciences and Indian Journal of Agricultural Sciences.
In September 2013, ICAR declared the Open Access Policy, which made all the public funded research available openly.
Scientists of ICAR were the first to sequence Pigeon Pea genome in the world. This entirely indigenous attempt was led by Nagendra Kumar Singh and his team of 31 scientists of National Research Center on Plant Biotechnology (NRCPB).
In 2019, ICAR developed a mobile app named KISAAN, which stands for Krishi Integrated Solution for Agri Apps Navigation. The app is designed for farmers. It is available in 12 Indian languages.
On December 5, 2020, ICAR bags Global Award from FAO titled “International King Bhumibol World Soil Day Award” for working on spreading awareness on soil health.