Lok Sabha Question No. 381 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2020-09-15
Subject: Promotion of Agricultural Research
Ministry: AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE
Asked by: Vishnu Dayal Ram

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH & EDUCATION

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 381 TO BE ANSWERED ON 15/09/2020

## PROMOTION OF AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH

## 381. SHRI VISHNU DAYAL RAM:

## Will the Minister of AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE d`f"k vkSj fdlku dY;k.k ea=h be pleased to state:

(a) whether  steps  are  being  taken/proposed  by  the  Government  to  promote agricultural research and  education  to make  the  country self-reliant in the agriculture sector, if so, the details thereof;

(b) the suggested norms/criteria for opening new agriculture universities in the country;

(c) whether the Government proposes to establish new agricultural universities in various States including Jharkhand;

(d) if  so,  the  details  thereof  along  with  the locations  identified  for  the  purpose including the estimated funds required for the same; and

(e) the suggested timeline for the establishment of these universities?

## A N S W E R

## THE MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE d`f"k vkSj fdlku dY;k.k ea=h (SHRI NARENDRA SINGH TOMAR)

(a) Yes, Sir.  To promote agricultural research and education, and to make the country self- reliant in the agriculture sector, DARE/ICAR has developed a country wide network of 103 Agricultural Research Institutes, 75 Agricultural Universities including  3  Central  Agricultural  Universities  and  11  Agriculture  Technology Application  Research  Institutes  ably  supported  by  a  network  of  Krishi  Vigyan Kendras  (KVKs)  at  the  district  level  mandated  with  technology  assessment  and demonstration for wider application and capacity development.  The institutes are developing  and  promoting  high  yielding  varieties  and  technologies  for  higher production,  reducing  farm  input  (manpower,  seed,  fertilizer  and  water)  and improving the income of farmers.

During the last 6 years, to accelerate the development of new and improved crops,  improved  crop  health  and  sustainable  farming  practices  Nanaji  Deshmukh Plant  Phenomics  Center  for  research  was  established  at  IARI,  Pusa,  New  Delhi. Towards creation of new  state of art infrastructure, Rajendra Agricultural University, Pusa, Bihar was upgraded to Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University.  Two  new  institutes  on  the  lines  of  Indian  Agricultural  Research Institute -Indian Agricultural Research Institute -Jharkhand and Indian Agricultural  Research  Institute  -  Assam  were  established.  New  colleges  were started  under  Central  Agricultural  University,  Imphal  and  Rani  Laxmibai Central Agricultural  University,  Jhansi.  Mahatma  Gandhi  Integrated  Farming  System Research Institute was established at Motihari, Bihar to provide holistic solution for the farming system in the flood prone areas. To improve the outreach of the ICAR among farming community of the country,  81 new  Krishi  Vigyan  Kendras  were established during the last 6 years taking the total number of KVKs upto 721. The details pertaining to the salient achievements made by DARE/ICAR in agricultural research and education are given in Annexure-I .

Due to the varieties of crops, improved breeds of livestock,  technologies and production  practices  developed  by  ICAR/NARS  ably  complemented  by  the programmes  and policies developed and implemented by the Government, the total production  (2019-20)  of  food  grains,  pulses,  oilseeds,  sugarcane,  horticultural produce,  milk  and  fish  has  reached  the  mark  of  295.67,  23.01,  33.50,  358.14, 313.35, 187.70 and 13.42 million tonnes per annum respectively thereby  making India self-reliant or surplus in most of these commodities.

(b) Government has issued Guidelines for establishment of Central Agricultural Universities (CAU). These guidelines are available at https://icar.org.in/files/CAUGuidelines-%202014-English%20.pdf

Government  has  also  issued  minimum  requirements  for  establishment  of new college in Agriculture and allied sciences.  These requirements are available at   https://icar.org.in/files/MinimumRequirements\_Final.pdf

(c) to (e): No,  Sir.      Currently  there  is  no  proposal  for  establishment  of  new agricultural universities in India.

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- In  higher  agriculture  education,  during  the  last  6  years,  the  recommendations  of  5 th Deans  Committee  were  implemented.  Four-year  degree  courses  in agriculture, horticulture,  fisheries  and  forestry  have  been  declared  as  professional  degrees.  State Agricultural Universities were accredited for quality education in agriculture. A total 40  new  centres  of  excellence  were  established  for  advanced  training  of  faculty.  To attract  talent  and  strengthen  higher  agricultural  education  in  the  country,  the  World Bank sponsored National Agricultural Higher Education Project (NAHEP) was started with  total  funding  assistance  of  Rs.1100.00  crores.  A  new  international  fellowship, "Netaji  Subhash  ICAR  Fellowships",  was  introduced  to  provide  training  to  Indian scholars in selected excellent laboratories in the world and to train foreign scholars in excellent Indian universities/establishments.
- During the last 6 years, ICAR/NARS developed and released 1405 high yielding/stress tolerant  varieties/hybrids  in  different  crops  including  707  of  Cereals,  220  of  pulses, 206 of oilseeds, 154 of commercial crops, 93 of fodder crops besides 20 Bt. Cotton varieties  and  5  other  crops.  In  addition,  over  472  improved  varieties  of  different horticultural crops have also been notified for cultivation under different agro-climatic conditions  during  this  period.    To  tackle  the  problem  of  malnutrition,  a  total  of  54 biofortified  varieties  of  crops  were  developed  by  ICAR,  a  new  initiative.  These varieties could be used to effectively tackle malnutrition by incorporating them in the PDS system and/or through introduction in the mid-day meal scheme of schools.
- Approximately,  7,02,663.8  quintals  breeder's  seed  of  improved  varieties  of  crops produced  and  provided  DoAC  &  FW  for  sustaining  the  effective  seed  chain  in  the country.  In  addition,  29,25,319.8  quintals  of  quality  seed  were  also  produced  and supplied  to  farmers  and  other  agencies  by  ICAR  during  last  6  years.  ICAR  also produced  and  supplied  3124.1  lakh  Quality  planting  material  including  45.3  lakh tissue culture plants among farmers.
- Developed 63 Integrated Farming System Models encompassing field and horticultural crops, agroforestry, livestock, fisheries for doubling income of small and marginal farmers of different agro-ecological regions of the country. ICAR developed 60 organic farming packages of practices for dominant crops and cropping systems to enhance farmers' income, which are being promoted under ParampragatKrishiVikasYojana (PKVY). As part of technology demonstration component of National Innovations in Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA), climate resilient  technologies  are  being  demonstrated  in  446  villages  representing  151 climatically  vulnerable  clusters.  The  district  based  contingency  plans  were  prepared for  650  rural  districts    in  the  country  so  far  and  hosted  on  ICAR/DAC  websites (http://farmer.gov.in/,  http://agricoop.nic.in/acp.html,  http://crida.in/  and  were  made available    to  all  state  agriculture  departments  for  implementation.  During  2014-20

ICAR has planned and/or treated more than 4500 ha area of watershed area at various locations falling in various agro-ecological regions of the country for soil and water conservation  and  productivity  enhancement.  Land  Resource  Inventory  (LRI)  on 1:10000 scale was prepared for 27 aspirational districts of India to workout block level land use planning. In collaboration with FAO, ICAR has contributed around two lakh geo-referenced soil organic carbon stock data which is the product  of  SOC concentrations, bulk density and reference soil depth of 30 cm. The same was used to develop soil organic carbon map of India at 1 km grid.

- In  livestock  sector  also,  focused  attention  has  been  given  towards  improvement  of productivity. During the last 6 years 9 new breeds of pig and 6 new varieties of poultry were developed. Besides, a total of 40 new cattle species were registered and notified by  the  Indian  Council  of  Agricultural  Research  during  the  years  2014  to  2019.  The total number of registered animal breeds / species in the country increased to 184. As part of an all-time initiative, all these 184 breeds were notified on 14 October 2019 in the  Gazette  of  India  to  protect  the  intellectual  property  rights  of  these  breeds.  Ten vaccines were developed by ICAR to deal with various animal diseases. An effective surveillance  regime  has  been  developed  and  thermos  tolerant  vaccines  are  being developed to free India from Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) by 2024. In addition, a total of 43 diagnostic kits were developed by ICAR for effective diagnosis of major animal diseases during last 6 years.
- In fisheries, ICAR developed 12 breeding and seed production technologies for food fishes and 20 ornamental fish species, developed  technologies for shrimp farming in inland  saline  waters, biofloc-technology,   Integrated  Multi-Trophic  Aquaculture  and open-sea cage farming, developed cost affective quality feed such as VannameiPlus, SeebassPlus,  Polyplus,   CIFRI  CageGrow,   Trout  starter  feed,  Varna,  Varsha  and Kalor  FishPlus  for  different  fish  /  shellfish  culture  species,  developed  improved variety of rohu, ' Jayanti ' with >50% higher growth after 9 th generation, improved catla with 30% higher growth and improved freshwater prawn with 30% higher growth and developed several high value compounds, antioxidants and nutraceuticals for combating joint pain, arthritis; type-2 diabetes; dyslipidemia; hypothyroidism; hypertension; osteoporosis; calcium deficiency and obesity. Besides, ICAR implemented National Surveillance Programme for Aquatic Animal Diseases (NSPAAD) in 17 states covering 115 districts with involvement of 27 organizations.
- ICAR, developed over 750 agriculture-based startups and Agri-entrepreneurs including the Farmer Entrepreneurs in various areas of agriculture.  ICAR, Research Institutes have provided the support for technology incubation activity and nurturing the techno-entrepreneurs in Agri-business Incubation (ABI) Centers established in 24 ICAR institutes, keeping in view the spectrum of technologies, available infrastructure and the core competency of the institutes.
- Farm  implement  and  machines  suitable  for  farmers  under  Indian  conditions  being developed and popularized by ICAR. The farm machinery banks are being established

for machines  being  manufactured  elsewhere  in  the country to supply in  low mechanized region on custom hiring basis. The rural youths/farmers are being trained at  the  Institutes  for  custom  hiring  of  farm  implements  and  machines.  The  custom hiring is catching up in many states like Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha and Manipur etc. During the last 5 years, ICAR research institutes developed 72 equipment/machines/gadgets and 34 products/ process protocols for mechanization of  farm  and  postharvest  operations.  Established  652  custom  hiring  centres  and established 49 agro-processing centres in rural catchments to encourage entrepreneurship and processing at the production sites.

- The exercise of monetizing 29 major technologies developed by ICAR has indicated the revenue contribution of Rs. 2 lakh crores per annum for the farming community/ country due to these technologies alone (http://www.niap.icar.org.in).
- ICAR  through  their  network  of  721  KVKs  have  provided  technological  support  to over 6.0 crore farmers, farm women and rural youth during last 6 years by conducting technology  validation  and  demonstrations,  capacity  development  and  organizing extension activities.

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