The Green Revolution was born in the fields of IARI.

The Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), popularly known as the 'Pusa Institute', is the country's premier national Institute for agricultural research, education and extension. It has served the cause of science and society with distinction through first rate research, generation of appropriate technologies and development of human resources. In fact, the Green Revolution was born in the fields of IARI and our graduates constitute the core of the quality human resource in India's agricultural research and education. The Institute has all along been adjusting and improving its policies, plans and programmes to effectively respond to the needs and opportunities of the nation. During the fifties, the advancement of scientific disciplines constituted the core programme and provided the base for its fast expansion in the 1960's and 1970's in all its three interactive areas, namely, research, education and extension. Besides basic research, applied and commodity research gained great importance resulting in the development of several popular high yielding varieties of almost all major crops and their associated management technologies, which brought about an unprecedented increase in the national food and agricultural production.

The Institute conducts basic and strategic research, serves as a centre for academic excellence and provides national leadership in agricultural research, education and extension through development of new concepts, hypotheses and technologies. It has the status of a “Deemed-to-be-University” under the UGC Act of 1956, and awards M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in various agricultural disciplines. The growth of India’s agriculture during the past nearly 100 years, is closely linked with the researches done and technologies generated by the Institute. The Green Revolution stemmed from the fields of IARI. Development of high yielding varieties of all major crops which occupy vast areas throughout the country, generation and standardization of their production, techniques, integrated pest management and integrated soil-water-nutrient management have been the hallmarks of the Institute’s research.

The research mandate of the Institute is to conduct basic and strategic research with a view to understand the processes, in all their complexity and to undertake need-based research, that lead to crop improvement and sustained agriculture productivity in harmony with environment. This is to provide national leadership in Agricultural Research, Extension and Technology assessment and transfer by developing new concepts and approaches and serving as a national referral point for quality and standards. To fulfill this mandate, IARI mainly concentrates its activities on:

School of Crop Improvements

School of Crop Protection

School of Basic Sciences

School of Resources Management

School of Social Sciences

Presently the research, education and extension activities of IARI are carried out through a network of 20 discipline-based divisions, 2 multidisciplinary centres, 8 regional stations, 2 offseason nurseries, 10 centres of AICRP and a common set of service units. The Institute also serves as the headquarters of 3 All India Coordinated Research Projects. In addition, some of the institutes like National Research Centre on Plant Biotechnology, NCIPM and Directorate of Maize Research are located on the campus.