Need for IARI at Southern India
Since a number of state agricultural universities (SAUs) and ICAR institutes located in different parts of the country have matured and are undertaking effective adaptive and applied research to solve regional and location-specific problems, IARI-New Delhi has a vision to generally shed off such research and increasingly move upstream with an increased thrust on strategic and basic researches which will not only keep enriching the stream of scientific knowledge, technology generation and product development. Keeping in view of the growing needs of the country, recently the Central Government has initiated two more Indian Agricultural Research Institutes in Jharkhand and Assam to meet the demands of the Eastern and North-Eastern regions of the country. Such addition of IARIs were aimed to help the farming community and provide students opportunity for higher learning of excellence in agricultural research with more focus on that region. As the Government of India is aiming for doubling the farm income in near future, developing several technologies for enhancing farm productivity and developing climate-resilient agriculture, it is important that more such IARIs are to be established in other parts of the country to meet the needs, particularly southern, western and central parts which lack such excellent facilities to conduct basic and strategic research needed in other 130 m hectares of cultivated agriculture located outside the IGP.
"As the Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE/ICAR) is one of the largest national agricultural systems in the world with 111 ICAR institutes and 73 agricultural universities serving the nation in agricultural research and education sector. Central government-funded Institutions and universities for agriculture higher education in the country concentrated north, east and west India that is four “Deemed to be Universities (DUs)” (ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi (IARI), Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Assam, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Jharkhand, ICAR-National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal, ICAR-Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Izatnagar and ICAR-Central Institute on Fisheries Education, Mumbai, and Three central agricultural universities (Central Agricultural University, Imphal, Manipur, Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Pusa, Bihar and Rani Laxmi Bai Central Agricultural University, Jhansi, UP) and four Central Universities (CUs) with Agriculture Faculty (Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, Banaras Hindu University Varanasi, Nagaland University Lumami, Vishwa Bharti, Shantiniketan). However, there is no central university and independent institutions offering higher education in agriculture located in south India."
The rationale for establishing IARI at the Southern States.
Agriculture in southern parts of the country is more diversified on one
hand and is prone to several climatic stresses on the other. The farming
community is being served by the presence of SAUs and specific ICAR Institutes
as in other parts of the country. However, there is a need for an integrated,
multi-disciplinary, and multi-commodity Institute to conduct cutting-edge
research and to develop technologies for overcoming current and future
challenges of this region. The population growth rates in southern states has
been between 5-15% in past decade and have about 20% of total cultivators in
India. About 35% of population is still below poverty line. Agriculture
production from this area contributes about 1/5th to total food
grains in India. Though the irrigated area is about 60% in AP and Tamil Nadu,
productivity is still below the attainable maximum due to several environmental
constraints. Moreover, climatic risks are projected to be more for southern
states further challenging the agricultural production in the region. A
state-of-the-art institute of IARI stature can address these challenges by
integrating crops, natural resources, livestock, and fisheries point of view
and provide technologies, knowledge base as well as develop human resources for
meeting future challenges. Therefore, an IARI is proposed to be located at
southern states and have a mandate to 1. Conduct integrated basic and
strategic research to optimize natural resource utilization for agricultural
production including crops, horticulture, livestock, and fisheries;
2. Serve as a centre for academic excellence in the area of
post-graduate education and human resources development in agricultural
sciences; 3. Provide regional leadership in agricultural research, extension,
and technology development and transfer; and serve as a national referral point
for quality and standards in research.
The Institute is envisaged to meet the needs of
agriculture in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Telangana, Tamil Nadu,
Puducherry and, Lakshadweep and Andaman and Nicobar Islands besides catering to
the needs of parts of Goa, Maharashtra and Odisha. However, the cutting-edge research areas will not
have any territorial boundaries but will be problem-oriented research. The
Institute will provide research leadership to the SAUs and other Institutes in
the region and will become focal centre in guiding policy to local governments
in convergence with the national policies.
Therefore, there is a urgent need for Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) like institution to southern states for the benefit of the students and farming community.
~Manu Sundavalu,
PhD Scholar, (Agronomy), IARI, New Delhi
Ref: Govt. institution's websites/Internet/some public intellectuals
Yes it is required
ReplyDeleteGood initiative sir. Yes their is genuine Requirement of deemed University like IARI for southern parts of the country. Being know for growing diversified crops of the country, lot of scope for doing various multidisciplinary research in southern India.
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