REALIZING the importance of islands agriculture to provide better livelihood to the people with integrated approach in these remote Islands, Indian Council of Agricultural Research established Central Agricultural Research Institute (CARI) in 23^rd June 1978 by merging regional stations of IARI, IVRI, CPCRI and CMFRI. Since then CARI is conducting research work for the farming community of these Islands. Presently, the research work has been conducted under five division viz., Field Crops, Natural Resource Management, Animal Science, Horticulture and Forestry & Fishery Science and Social Science section.

The institute has four research farms, main campus at Garacharma of 62 ha area, where work on field crops, horticulture, Animal Sciences and fresh water fisheries are carried out. Another one is at Sippighat having an area of 32 ha where research work on horticulture and brackish water fisheries is carried out. Third farm is located at Bloomsdale which has flat lands of 3.5 ha and this is used for research work on Natural Resource Management and field crops. The fourth farm is at Marine Hill where state of the art fisheries informatics lab has been established. The institute has fairly adequate laboratory facilities for all divisions in addition to a well equipped Central Instrumentation Facility with all possible sophisticated instruments. To reach the farmers of different Islands and transfer the technologies developed by CARI, an Out Reach Centre funded by NABARD has been established at Diglipur. This centre has become operational from 15th July, 2009. ICAR has sanctioned one KVK in Nicobar district.

The institute has been doing work for the island farmers to provide decent livelihood through technological intervention. The major mandate of the institute is to provide a research base to improve the productivity of important agriculture, horticulture, livestock and fishery sector of A & N Islands through adoptive, basic and strategic research. While earlier focus was to attain self sufficiency for island, the situation has changed in recent years. Due to the impact of the climate change and changing scenario of the agriculture practices, focus will now be to make self sufficiency by enhancing the productivity without disturbing the fragile ecosystem.

 

Mandate

• To provide a research base to improve the productivity of important agri-horticulture, livestock and fisheries sector of A & N islands through adaptive and basic research for attaining economic self sufficiency
• To develop appropriate plans for conservation of natural resources and their sustainable use
• To standardize technologies for animal health coverage and livestock production
• To standardize techniques for capture and culture fisheries including coastal aquaculture
• First line transfer of technology and training to the relevant state departments

Vision

Sustainable development in agri-horticulture, livestock and fisheries sector in the changing climatic scenario to ensure decent livelihood in the fragile island ecosystem

 

Mission

Providing decent livelihood to farm youth from agriculture in a fragile island ecosystem on sustainable basis.

 

Focus

The Island economy has undergone a sea change in recent past. From forest based and Government job based economy, it is shifting to tourism based economy. This shift requires a rethink on research programmes to meet the emerging challenges of inclusive growth and sustainable economy. With this in view, following focus has been envisaged for CARI.

 

• Development of suitable technological innovations for enhancing rice production and efficient processing to meet Individual Island level requirement in view of the forthcoming Food Security Act.
• Reorientation of agricultural production system to meet the demand of perishable products, viz. milk, egg, meat, fish, fruits,vegetables and flowers with specific reference to demand of booming tourism industry.
• Suitable processing and value addition technologies for organic farming system to market with a decoratively packaged Andaman brand organic farm products.
• Development of suitable production to consumption level chain involving SHGs and retailers / armed forces / processors.
• Conservation and bio-prospecting of biodiversity richness of the Islands.
• Appropriate rain water management technology to create micro level water resources to increase irrigated area from present 3 % to a significant level.
• Linking CARI with other educational institutions for creating local level skilled human resources in field of agriculture and allied sciences.
• Making CARI a model for NARS of small island Nations and collaborating with them with special reference to post disaster restoration of agriculture.

Thrust Areas

• Development of suitable technologies to attain substantial increase in productivity and production of perishable products, viz., vegetables, fruits, flowers, spices, milk, egg, meat, and fish to meet the requirement of island population and tourists both normal and high end
• Increasing exploitation of marine resources through stock assessment and mariculture
• Technological innovations to achieve double cropping in suitable lands to attain local level food security by genetic, agronomical, soil and water management and post harvest technology interventions.
• Exploration of bio-diversity of the region for its collection, cataloguing and bio-prospecting.
• Transfer of production technology of various products to create a production to consumption chain involving SHGs and retailer / processor/ armed forces
• Climate change and island ecosystem.