DARE-ICAR Achievements 2021-22

The strong collaboration of ICAR with other stakeholders at grassroots
level continued backstopping towards nation?s food and nutritional security
despite of challenges such as biotic and abiotic stresses in agriculture and
Covid pandemic. The major accomplishments of ICAR during 2021-22 are
precisely presented in this document.
The achievements are grouped into different themes. The release of 389
crop varieties, production of quality breeder seed and planting materials
and promotion of agricultural exports marked the impact of ICAR
technologies. While, the release of biofortified crop varieties, strengthening
POSHAN Abhiyan, promoting startups and entrepreneurs in food processing
especially in millets contributed significantly in enhancement of nutritional
outcome. The climate resilience in agriculture was addressed by releasing
resilient varieties, capacity building in new resilient villages, and revalidating
agriculture contingency plans of 15 districts. In addition, chemical free
agriculture, water footprint reduction, disruptive innovations for smart/precision agriculture summarizes R&D efforts for enhancing respective
resource use efficiencies at field level.
The major achievements in animal productivity and health management
were documentation of indigenous animal breeds, cloning technology
in breeding, feed supplement formulations, dairy technology, and Serosurveillance of animal diseases. The research breakthrough in aquatic
sector is summarized in Blue Revolution. The innovations in farm and postharvest equipments, processing protocols, and storage are covered under mechanization and reduction of post-harvest losses.
During the period, the agricultural education was strengthened through
revision of UG and PG course curricula, quality assurance in higher agricultural
education and enhancement in number and amount of scholarships. Further,
approval of road map for the implementation of New Education Policy 2020
and constitution of a committee for developing syllabus and curricula on
natural farming were the efforts to align agricultural education with National
Educational Policy.
The Lab to Land outreach by KVKs helped ICAR to reach the unreached
through establishment of new KVKs, conduct of FLDs, skill development
trainings, extension activities, and supply of large quality of seeds and
planting materials. Besides, documented ~71000 success stories of farmers
towards Doubling of farmers? income. Effective use of ICT in decision making
and marketing of farm produce for empowering farmers is summarised
under digital linkage with farmers.
The document is an effort to provide a glimpse of ICAR?s R&D achievements
during year 2021-22 under the guidance and supervision of Dr. T. Mohapatra,
former Secretary, DARE and DG,ICAR and support of Dr. Himanshu Pathak,
Secretary, DARE and DG, ICAR. The inputs from all the SMDs/Units are duly
acknowledged with thanks to all the DDGs/ADGs and concerned personnel.
The support of Mrs Suman Khurana, Senior Technical Officer of PIM section
is highly appreciated.