Indian Council of Agricultural Research

ICAR Full Form in English, letter by letter

ICAR is the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, the apex body that coordinates agricultural research and education across India.

ICAR Full Form in Indian Languages

ICAR is why agriculture courses look similar in Punjab and Tamil Nadu. Here is Indian Council of Agricultural Research, with its name in six Indian languages.

What ICAR is

ICAR stands for Indian Council of Agricultural Research, the apex body that coordinates, funds and guides agricultural research and education across India. It was established on 16 July 1929 as the Imperial Council of Agricultural Research and was renamed in the years around Independence.

It works under the Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE) in the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare, with headquarters in New Delhi. Its aim is simple: move science from the laboratory to the farm and keep agricultural universities working in step.

The network behind the name

ICAR coordinates a large network of national research institutes, All India Coordinated Research Projects that test varieties at many locations at once, and the agricultural universities it supports. The work covers crops, horticulture, fisheries, animal husbandry, agricultural engineering and food technology.

Well-known institutions in the network include the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) in New Delhi, the Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI) at Izatnagar, Bareilly, the National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI) at Karnal and the Indian Institute of Horticultural Research in Bengaluru. Several of them run postgraduate programmes that train farm scientists.

Research that reached the field

ICAR institutions, working with state universities, developed and spread the high-yielding wheat and rice varieties that drove the Green Revolution from the late 1960s. India's foodgrain output has grown from about 50 million tonnes in the early 1950s to more than 300 million tonnes now. That rise owes as much to research and extension as to irrigation and fertiliser.

Between the laboratory and the farmer sit the Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs), district farm science centres numbering well over 700. They demonstrate new varieties, run training camps and act as the first point of contact for a farmer trying something new on a small plot.

ICAR admissions: AIEEA, CUET and the PG routes

For years ICAR held its own entrance exam, the All India Entrance Examination for Admission (AIEEA), for undergraduate and postgraduate seats in agriculture, horticulture, fisheries and allied subjects, including the all-India quota seats in state agricultural universities.

Undergraduate admissions through the ICAR quota now use scores from the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) in the relevant subjects. Postgraduate and research fellowship admissions continue through separate national tests conducted by the National Testing Agency for ICAR. The pattern has changed more than once, so read the current information bulletin before you apply.

Veterinary degree admissions are handled separately from agriculture, and the Veterinary Council of India rules and counselling schedules apply, so a student interested in both should read the brochures of each. Seats under the all-India quota are filled through counselling, not directly by the entrance test alone, so keep your documents ready for the counselling dates.

Why the Council matters beyond campuses

ICAR helps keep an agriculture degree comparable across states through common curricula and accreditation work done with the universities. It also coordinates trials of new varieties at many sites before release, so that a variety recommended for one region has been tested for it.

Its production data and research feed into food policy, and private seed and agri-tech companies license varieties and technology from the same research base.

ICAR also shapes agricultural careers. The Agricultural Scientists Recruitment Board, an ICAR body, conducts the exams for scientist posts and for teaching eligibility in agriculture, such as the ARS and NET. Graduates in agriculture can also look at state agriculture departments, agri-input companies, banks that lend to farmers and teaching posts at universities. Hold on to your degree's recognition details and always read the official notification, because eligibility conditions differ for each recruitment.

ICAR is less a single building than a research system of institutes, coordinated trials, agricultural universities and district farm centres that has followed Indian agriculture from scarcity to surplus. Students and farmers meet its work in the varieties, syllabi and advice they use.

ICAR Full Form: Common Questions