Ag Tech and Research News

Funding in Agricultural Research and Education in India

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15 September 2020, New Delhi: The public money spent on agricultural research and education to total of agricultural gross domestic product in India was 0.67% during 2017-18 at current prices.

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The spending on agriculture is subject to availability of funding with the Government. The public expenditure on agricultural Research and Examination has increased over years in absolute terms. The budget for agricultural research and education increased from Rs.115.44 billion in 2014-15 to Rs. 173.60 billion (at current prices) in 2017-18.

Promotion of Agricultural Research

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.

To improve the quality of research in agriculture and build a storehouse of advancement of knowledge of the national importance, the Department invites and funds proposals on competitive basis at national level for BasicStrategic and Frontier Application Research in Agriculture, where institutions under NARS, autonomous organization including IITs etc are participating.

The Government has also been forward looking to improve existing infrastructure quality of agricultural research over years. Computerization and digitization of research system including administrative system along with equipment and chemicals are some examples of modernization of research system.

Read: Three bills aimed at transformation of agriculture and raising farmers’ income introduced in Lok Sabha

The Government of India has been collaborating with foreign research institutions/ universities in all fields of sciences including agriculture to improve quality of research outputs.

United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific (UNESCAP), Asia Pacific Network for Testing Agricultural Machinery (ANTAM), and other international institutions are active partners of DARE/ICAR and have several memorandum of understanding (MOU) with foreign collaborators.

Photo credit: Phil Bus on Visualhunt / CC BY-SA

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