Iari: India’s apex institute for agricultural research, education and extension

The journey of Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), popularly known as Pusa Institute, began in 1905 at Pusa (Bihar) with the generous grant of 30,000 pounds from an American philanthropist, Mr. Henry Phipps. The institute was then known as Agricultural Research Institute (ARI) which functioned with five departments, namely Agriculture, Cattle Breeding, Chemistry, Economic Botany and Mycology. Bacteriology unit was added in 1907. The name of ARI was changed to Imperial Institute of Agricultural Research in 1911 and, in 1919 it was renamed as Imperial Agricultural Research Institute. Following a devastating earth quake on 15th January 1934, the institute was shifted to Delhi on 29th July 1936. Post independence, the institute has been renamed as Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI). It attained the status of a Deemed University in the year 1958. The green revolution that brought smiles to millions of Indians bloomed from the fields of IARI with the development of famous wheat varieties which contributed an estimated one billion tones of addition production. As the Mother of several ICAR institutions, IARI continues to be the leading institution for agricultural research, education and extension in the country. The present campus of the Institute is spread over an area of about 500 hectares (approx. 1250 acres). Currently, the Institute has 20 divisions, 5 multi-disciplinary Centers situated in Delhi, 8 regional stations, 2 off-season nurseries, 3 All India coordinated research projects with headquarters at IARI and 10 national Centers functioning under the all India coordinated research projects. It has the sanctioned staff strength of 3540 comprising scientific, technical, administrative and supporting personnel. IARI is playing remarkable role in agricultural development in our country as mother institute of ICAR. Though there are many roles remaining to think and perform in recent days accordingly.