Question : RESEARCH BY AGRICULTURAL INSTITUTES

(a) whether the Government is satisfied with the progress in agricultural research in the country as compared to other BRIC nations;

(b) if so, the recent achievements of the ICAR;

(c) the funds budgeted for agricultural research during the last three years and utilisation thereof;

(d) whether the Government has any joint research programme with agricultural research institutions of other countries to make the agricultural research more progressive at par with other countries; and

(e) if so, the details thereof?

MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE (DR. SANJEEV KUMAR BALYAN)

(a) The research undertaken by Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) is at par with any other advanced nation including the group of BRIC nations. The research institutes have established advanced and modern laboratory infrastructure and farm facilities and the scientists have been trained in overseas institutions/ laboratories in specialized disciplines for overall research excellence and quality output at par with other advanced nations. The ICAR is having research programmes in different commodity/theme based research institutes in order to increase the production and productivity of crops in the country. These research institutes take up the basic and strategic research programmes related to crop/animal/fruit/fish improvement and development of production and protection technologies to form a base for applied research. The information so developed is used by respective All India Coordinated Research Projects (AICRPs) and All India Network Projects (AINPs) to develop location specific varieties/breeds and technologies as per the agro ecological needs for enhancing the production and productivity. Further during XII Plan ICAR has also initiated 16 Consortia Research Platforms in the cutting edge areas of research with an outlay of Rs. 1651.80 crore for finding customized solution to specific long standing problems in addition to existing research activities.

(b) The recent salient achievements are given in Annexure-I.

(c) The total funds (Plan) budgeted at RE stage and Expenditure thereof in the past three years

 (Rs. in Crores) XII Plan	Revised Estimates	Actual Expenditure	(DARE and ICAR)	(DARE and ICAR) 2012-13	2520.00	2374.73 2013-14	2600.00	2469.17 2014-15	2500.00	1348.52#