Lok Sabha Question No. 311 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2020-02-04
Subject: Adequate Funding for ICAR
Ministry: AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE
Asked by: Nalin Kumar Kateel

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

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 311

## TO BE ANSWERED ON 04/02/2020

## ADEQUATE FUNDING FOR ICAR

## 311. SHRI NALIN KUMAR KATEEL:

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

- (a) whether the Government  has  allocated adequate funds to Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) to meet the requirements and challenges of agriculture sector;
- (b) if so, the details of the funds allocated, released and spent during the last three years, year-wise;
- (c) whether the Government has conducted any review of the functioning of the ICAR in the recent years;
- (d) if  so,  whether  the  Government  has  taken  note  of  the  huge  number  of  vacant  posts lying in the ICAR since long; and
- (e) if  so,  the  details  of  the  measures  taken  by  the  Government  to  provide  all  the necessary facilities to encourage the ICAR to work to meet its requirements and challenges of agriculture sector?

## 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) & (b): Yes,  Sir.    The  budgetary  allocation  of  the  Indian  Council  of  Agricultural Research (ICAR) during 2016-17, 2017-18, 2018-19 was Rs 5782.13, 6740.55 and 7564.51 crores  respectively  which  was  released  to  ICAR  research  institutes/  establishments  under various  schemes  operational  in  the  Council.  The  budget  utilisation  during  the  past  three years was Rs 5735.13 (99.2%), 6341.27 (94.1%) and 7243.19 (95.8%) crores respectively.
- (c) The Peer Review Team headed by Dr T. Ramasami setup by the Government has reviewed  the  Indian  Council  of  Agricultural  Research  (ICAR)  recently.  The  Committee submitted  its  recommendations  to  the  Government  in  2017.  The  recommendations  of  the Peer  Review  Team  on  Techno-Functional  aspects  have  been  examined  and  accepted  by Indian Council of Agricultural Research for action by all concerned.

(d) Recruitment  for  all vacant  positions against specialised positions is  done  by Agricultural  Scientists  Recruitment  Board  (ASRB),  which  is  a  continuous  process.  To improve the recruitment process,  ASRB has been restructured by  the  Government during August 2018.  The full board is now in position and the recruitment process has been fasttracked.

(e) Government has taken a number of measures to address the Challenges faced by the Agriculture Sector.  Two new Indian Agriculture Research Institute (IARI) like Institutions of  excellence  have  been  established,  one  each  in  Assam  and  Jharkhand;  Rajendra Agricultural  University  has  been  upgraded  to  Dr.  Rajendra  Prasad  Central  Agricultural University;  National  Research  Centre  for  Integrated  Farming  established  in  Motihari (Bihar).  Besides  this,  ICAR  established  six  new  Regional  Research  Stations  of  various ICAR Institutes in  MP,  Karnataka,  Andhra  Pradesh,  Gujarat  and  West  Bengal  during  the last 5  years. Financial support has also been extended to Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, and Haryana Governments for the establishment of new Agriculture and Horticulture Universities.  Flagship  schemes  have  been  implemented  to  promote  research  in  different areas  of  agricultural  and  allied  sectors  to  increase  agricultural  productivity  and  minimize crop loss. A new state of the art Phonemics Facility has been created at ICAR-IARI, New Delhi  for  conducting  advanced  research  on  climate  reliance.  For  fostering  the  growth  of sustainable  business  endeavor  and  to  nurture  the  techno-entrepreneurs,  the  Council  has established 50 Agri-Business Incubators at ICAR Institutes and Agricultural Universities.

Owing to various Government initiatives, ICAR has been able to develop a number of  varieties,  technologies  for  effectively  addressing  various  challenges  faced  by  the agricultural sector of the country. A total of 1020 high yielding varieties of various crops have been developed during the period 2014-2019 as compared to 545 varieties developing during  2009-2014.  Similarly,  339  high  yielding  varieties  of  fruits  vegetables  and  other horticultural  crops  were  developed  during  2014-19  compared  to  269  varieties  during  the period 2009 to 2014. ICAR during the last 5 years' period has developed 53 bio-fortified varieties to effectively tackle the problem of malnutrition in the country.  Creation of 150 seed hubs of pulse crops, together with policy support has enabled the Country to attain near self-sufficiency  in  pulse  crops.  A  total  of  41  new  cattle  species  have  been  registered  and notified,  6  new  varieties  of  pigs  and  5  new  high  producing  back  yard  poultry  varieties besides 10 vaccines and 43 diagnostic kits for major animal diseases were developed by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research during the years 2014 to 2019.

ICAR has also developed 51 integrated farming systems models and same number of (51) organic farming models suitable for various agro-ecologies of the country. As part of National Innovations in Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA), climate resilient technologies  are  being  demonstrated  in  151  climatically  vulnerability  districts  of  the country. The district based contingency plans have been prepared for 650 rural districts  in the country and hosted on ICAR/DAC websites ( http://farmer.gov.in/, http://agricoop.nic.in/acp.html,  http://crida.in/. These  are  made  available  to  all  state agriculture  departments  for  implementation.  During  2014-19,  ICAR  developed  23197 prototypes  of  improved  agriculture  machinery  besides  establishing  126  agro-processing centres  and  45  Food  Processing  Laboratories  across  various  parts  of  the  country.    These efforts are helping the farming community of the country by increasing efficiency, reducing crop loss and improving their income.

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