Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute IASRI

Campus Location: Bhandara

Located in A small Statistical section established in 1930 under the, then, Imperial Council of Agricultural Research, to assist the State Departments of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry in planning their experiments, analysis of experimental data, interpretation of results and rendering advice on the formulation of the technical programmes as also examining the progress reports of the schemes funded by the Council., Dr. PV Sukhatme appointed as Statistician to the Council in 1940. The research was initiated for developing objective and reliable methods for collecting yield statistics of principal food crops. Efficiency and practicability of these methods were demonstrated in different states for estimating yield by crop cutting experiments. The recognition which this method attained was such that in the course of a few years, the method was extended practically to the entire country to cover all principal food and non-food crops., Research in sampling theory and training of field and statistical staff were initiated resulting in the re-organisation of the Statistical Section into a Statistical Branch with permanent footing in 1945 accompanied by appropriate expansion in its strength. Statistical Branch soon acquired international recognition as a centre for research and training in the field of Agricultural Statistics. In 1949 it was named as Statistical Wing of the Indian Council of Agricultural Reseach (ICAR). During 1952 on the recommendations of two Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) experts Dr Frank Yates and Dr DJ Finney who visited the Council on the invitation of the Government of India, activities of the Statistical Wing were further expanded and diversified. In August, 1955, it moved to its present campus. The Statistical Wing was re-designated as the Institute of Agricultural Research Statistics (IARS) on 2nd of July 1959., Signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi in 1964,for starting new courses leading to M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Agricultural Statistics in collaboration with IARI in October, 1964., Institute was declared as a full-fledged Institute in the ICAR system in April, 1970 and is since then headed by a Director. Name of the Institute was changed to Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute (IASRI) on 1st January, 1978, emphasising the role of Agricultural Statistics as a full fledged discipline by itself., A third generation computer Burroughs B-4700 system was installed in March,1977 in a new three-storeyed Computer Centre building. Institute provided selective information services to scientists in the ICAR Institutes and Agricultural Universities on references to documents relating to areas of their specific interest from Information System for Agricultural Sciences and Technology (AGRIS) from 1975 to1989. From October, 1983 to March, 1992 the Institute also functioned as a Centre of Advanced Studies in Agricultural Statistics and Computer Application under the aegis of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). This programme was aimed at developing a Centre of Excellence with adequate infrastructure and facilities to undertake advanced training programmes and to carry out research on various aspects of agricultural statistics and computer application. A new course leading to M.Sc. degree in Computer Application in Agriculture was initiated from the session 1985-86 which was subsequently changed into M.Sc. degree in Computer Application from the session 1993-94., During 1991-95, the old Burroughs B-4700 used till 1990 was replaced by a LAN ServerCosmos in 1991 and Pentium 90 in 1996. Dumb Terminals, were installed PC-386 were installed as hosts with the Unix server. PC XT s were provided to ten scientists in various Labs. HARDWARE : Pentium Computers were installed in the Labs of various Divisions and other units. VSAT was installed and internet and SMTP e-mail were made accessible. The various buildings were connected to LAN using optical fibre. LAN has been strengthened using switches, hubs and structural cabling.. Use Google Maps for turn-by-turn driving directions to the campus.