ICAR-CENTRAL ISLAND AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE

INDIAN COUNCIL OF AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH

MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE


ABOUT ICAR-CENTRAL ISLAND AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE
ICAR-Central Island Agricultural Research Institute (CIARI) formerly Central
Agricultural Research Institute (CARI)

The Central Agricultural Research Institute (CARI), an ICAR unit for A & N Islands was
established on 23
rd
June 1978 by merging different Regional Research Stations of the
ICAR Institutes viz., Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, Indian Veterinary
Research Institute, Indian Agricultural Research Institute and Central Plantation Crops
Research Institute. CARI caters to the specific needs of agricultural research and
development of the Union Territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. It was entrusted
with the task of developing technologies for enhancing the productivity and production
of crops, livestock and fishery through adoptive and basic research to bridge the gap
between requirement and the local production. The institute is unique in ICAR system
which is engaged in multidisciplinary research, benefiting island ecosystem. It has
several accomplishments during the last thirty five years of its service despite various
insurmountable constraints. The research activities are carried out under five divisions
viz., Natural Resource Management, Horticulture & Forestry, Field Crops, Fisheries
Science, Animal Science and one Social Science Section. The Institute has its main
campus located at Garacharma farm and is spread over 62 ha of land wherein research
work related to field crops, horticulture, animal sciences and fresh water fisheries are
being carried out. In addition, it has three Krishi Vigyan Kendras located one each at
Sippighat, Car Nicobar and Nimbudera covering all the three districts of the Island,
besides an Out Reach Centre supported by NABARD at Diglipur, North Andaman.

With the accumulated experience and expertise in Island agriculture, it is envisioned to
make a major stride in coming years towards our cherished goal of emerging as the
Institute of Excellence on Tropical Island Agriculture in the Asian countries.
Accordingly, the Institute in this year of XII five year plan, has been re-named as ICAR-
Central Island Agricultural Research Institute (CIARI) and it is high time we capitalize
on our own research foundation and the cumulative strength as a member of NARS to
be a model for tropical Island agriculture research to the South East Asian countries in
short term and entire world, in long term.

Our primary focus for the 12th plan is to enhance productivity through characterization
and conservation of Island genetic resources, development of genetically superior
varieties/ breeds, systems approach in Island farming, development of climate resilient
agricultural technologies suitable for the agro-ecological conditions of these Islands and
effective management of post-harvest losses. The effective transfer of technologies
would help to achieve self sufficiency in major food items, particularly the perishable
commodities and to ensure nutritional and livelihood security to the Island
farmers/ fishers/ farm women especially the tribal farmers of the Nicobar group of
Islands. For socioeconomic amelioration of the tribal communities and the farm women
it is envisioned to provide livelihood opportunity through sustainable technological
intervention and capacity building under Tribal and NEH Plan.

In order to utilize the financial resources optimally and in the light of the fact that CIARI
is the only ICAR Research Institute in this region, it is planned to strengthen the state of
the art centralized research facilities for conducting research on impact of climate
change, bio-prospecting of Island genetic resources, post harvest and pre-harvest,
animal and fish health, research on soil, water and tissue culture research. Integrated
Agriculture System for Tropical Island is being taken up as the flagship programme of
this Institute to enhance the adaptive capacity of the Island farmers and fishers in order
to build disaster and climate resilient Islands through frontier research. The integrated
approach will be promoted by developing location-specific farming system models,
including the wealth of the vast coastal and marine resources in the Islands, which can
serve as unique models for Tropical Island ecosystems. The geographical location of
Island confers freedom from various diseases, insect, pest, however, the unrestricted
entry of unwanted bio-organisms pose a continual threat to the crop- animal-fish
component of the Islands. In order to protect the precious flora and faunal diversity of
the Islands, it is envisioned to develop facilities for Composite Bio-security and
Quarantine Facility in the XII Plan.

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
To provide 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 CIARI.
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 CIARI with other educational institutions for creating local level skilled
human resources in field of agriculture and allied sciences.
Making CIARI a model for NARS of small island Nations and collaborating with
them with special reference to post disaster restoration of agriculture.
THRUST AREAS FOR XII PLAN

Broad research programmes for the XII Plan are as under:
Characterization and bioprospecting of natural Island bio-resources
Climate proofing Island agriculture for improving productivity
Development of harvest - post-harvest management practices and value addition
Policy support research for agriculture development in the Islands


Beside three other programmes are:
Flagship programme on integrated agriculture system for tropical Island
Establishment of Composite bio-security & quarantine facility
Tribal Sub Plan

ORGANISATIONAL SETUP

Administration of the institute rests with the Director, who receives support from both
research divisions and administration. The Research Advisory Committee (RAC),
Institute Management Committee (IMC) and Institute Research Council (IRC) reviews
and monitor the research programmes and facilitates to identify new research thrust
areas for the Institute. To accomplish the mandate, the research activities are organized
under five divisions namely, Natural Resource Management, Horticulture & Forestry,
Field Crops, Fisheries Science, Animal Science and one section i.e. Social Science.



About Divisions and Sections
NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
The Division of Natural Resource Management has been engaged in development
of sustainable resource management strategies or technologies in Andaman & Nicobar
Islands. The division was originally formed in 1984 as Division of crop production, soil
conservation and water management (CSW) with a view to address the issues
concerning crop production, soil and water. Later a separate division of agricultural
engineering and post harvest technology was created. On the recommendation of QRT
and other experts division of agricultural engineering and post harvest technology was
merged with Division of CSW and agro-forestry was included and thus the Division of
Natural Resource Management was formed in 1999. So far the main focus of the division
was to develop appropriate plans for conservation of natural resources and their
sustainable use; and to improve the productivity and profitability of the agri-
horticultural system relevant in the island by developing appropriate agro techniques,
post harvest technology and value addition.

Though agricultural land is limited in supply productivity of crop and land can be
increased with the help of green technologies suitable for the socio-economic milieu of
the island farmers. Hence sustainable management of natural resources is vital for
agricultural development with positive growth and long term sustainability. In recent
times we are confronted with land degradation of different types and magnitude,
ground water imbalances, impaired soil health and low productivity of the farming
system. Under such circumstances, to address to the need of these islands the Division
of NRM has reoriented and set the thrust areas as follows:
Research on improving farm productivity and efficient resource utilization
through integrated farming systems approach.
Assessment and management of post harvest losses in rice, pulses, black pepper,
clove, cinnamon and their value addition
Assessment of climate change and agricultural vulnerability of A&N Islands for
developing climate resilient resource conserving technologies


HORTICULTURE AND FORESTRY

The Horticulture & Forestry Division of CARI, Port Blair was created along with
inception of CARI, Port Blair in 1983 to look after the research activities on horticultural
and agro-forestry crops for developing this sector as sustainable source of livelihood as
enshrined in the institute mandate.

Thrust area
Conservation and utilization of island horticulture biodiversity for development
of island specific high yielding varieties
Bio prospecting of potential horticultural crops for food and health uses.
Development of production practices for climate change resilient island
horticulture
Training to local human resource in horticultural for entrepreneurship development
Provide policy inputs to local administration for development of island horticulture

FIELD CROP

The Division of Field Crops, CIARI, Port Blair has been working on basic, strategic
and applied aspects of crop improvement and protection for Andaman & Nicobar Island
conditions. It encompasses genetic improvement primarily of rice, pulses, oilseeds,
maize etc. for the island conditions. The research efforts also focussed on basic
understanding and management of plant biotic stresses including diseases and insect
pests. Biodiversity collection, conservation and characterization mainly of native
germplasm of field crops, potential micro-organisms and insect flora of agricultural
importance have been other priorities. Division of Field Crops came into being in 2003
with the amalgamation of erstwhile Divisions/ Sections of Crop Improvement, Plant
Pathology and Entomology.

The systematic crop improvement efforts mainly in rice and pulses were started
around 1986. Since then extensive collection, evaluation and development of rice
germplasm were carried out under different national and international programs.
About 20 rice land races initially introduced by settlers from various origins which got
subsequently adapted under island conditions have been collected and characterized
using biochemical and molecular markers. The initial breeding efforts also aimed at
introduction and evaluating early and medium duration rice varieties. The rice varietal
trials were conducted for screening for tolerance to coastal salinity, acidity, aluminium
toxicity, iron toxicity, low phosphorus condition etc. Several promising lines and donors
were selected from evaluation trials and formed the basis of the rice breeding program.
The combining ability analysis through line X tester studies identified good parents for
hybridization. A new species of wild rice Oryza inandamanica Ellis sp. Nov. perceived to
have higher drought tolerance was reported from Rutland of South Andaman.
Significant to mention, lot of work on tissue culture, somaclonal variation and
Agrobacterium mediated transformation was carried out for rice improvement.

As a result of these sustained over several years, five varieties of rice CARI Dhan -
1, CARI Dhan -2, CARI Dhan -3, CARI Dhan-4 and CARI Dhan -5 were developed and
released by CIARI, for general cultivation in the islands in 2009. Of these CARI DHAN -1,
CARI DHAN -2 and CARI DHAN -3 are exotic introductions through IRRI, Philippines
which have been recommended for cultivation in normal soils. On the other hand, CARI
DHAN -4 and CARI DHAN -5 are derived from somaclonal variants of Pokkali and have
been recommended for cultivation in coastal saline-acidic soils.

The pulse improvement program was started in 1986 with the evaluation of
germplasm of mung bean, urd bean etc. The mutation breeding approach was employed
for improvement of green gram. Crosses were also made to understand the combining
ability of mung bean germplasm. Several promising lines of mung bean and urd bean
were evaluated and subsequently sent for All India Co-ordinated Pulse trials.
The diseases and insect-pests of various agricultural, horticultural and forest trees of
Andaman and Nicobar Islands were surveyed and catalogued. The biology of bacterial
wilt of solanaceous vegetables has been studied and suitable management strategies
recommended. The production technology including spawn production for oyster and
milky mushrooms has been developed and demonstrated through training programs.

Among pests, salient achievements were made for the management of snails, rice
stem borer, tomato fruit borer and rhinoceros beetle through baculovirus. Similarly
extensive surveys were carried out to record and document the populations of fruit fly
of fruits and cucurbits, insects of mangroves and butterflies in the Andaman and
Nicobar islands. The Hindi version of Butterflies book Andaman ki Titliyaan has also
been bestowed upon ICAR Award on Technical book on Hindi.

Thrust area
Genetic Resources
Varietal Improvement
Disease and Pest Management
Agricultural Biotechnology


ANIMAL SCIENCE

The CIARI was established on 23.06.1978 by amalgamating the regional research
centres of various ICAR institutes. The division of Animal Science was established after
amalgamating the regional centre of IVRI.
Later as per QRT recommendations, division were designated as research section.

The mandate for animal science is
To provide a research base for improving the productivity of livestock and its
products for self sufficiency in the islands.
To standardise technologies for animal health coverage and livestock production
system.
To fulfil the mandates various projects were undertaken in the division to fulfil
the mandate. Efforts were undertaken to develop infrastructural facilities for the
research work. The major emphasis was laid down on problem-based work in
close collaboration with the development departments of these Islands.

Thrust area
Characterization and conservation of indigenous livestock and poultry
germplasm of Bay Islands
Identification and evaluation of non conventional energy sources
Augmentation of feed & fodder resources
Study on nutritional requirements of indigenous germplasms viz. Nicobari fowl,
Teressa goat and Nicobari Pig to improve their performance.
Development and establishment of disease diagnosis, surveillance and
monitoring facilities.
Immunological and molecular investigations on disease resistance in indigenous
pig, goat & poultry
Screening of indigenous medicinal plants for better health and productivity of
livestock.
Post harvest technology and value addition of livestock and poultry produce
Promotion of concept of contract farming based on pig, goat, poultry and fodder
production.
Diversification of poultry propagation of alternate poultry farming

FISHERIES SCIENCE

Over past three decades Fisheries Science Division has its focus on addressing
the issues related to aquaculture, capture fisheries resources and impact of climate
change on coastal bio-resources. During the first decade (1978-88), the primary focus
was on cataloguing the fisheries resources and understanding the fisheries potential of
the islands, which could be attributed to the origin of the division from CMFRI.
Subsequently, in the next decade (1988-98), comprehensive efforts were taken to study
the aquaculture potential freshwater and mariculture by experimenting and
improvising the different fish culture methods from the mainland based on the island
conditions. During the third decade (1998-2008), significant efforts were undertaken
for costal bio-resource characterization with special reference to climate change. The
main focus of the fourth decade ever since the inception of the institute, has been on
consolidation of the research efforts on aquaculture, resource management, biodiversity
characterization and utilization by using high-end space and molecular tools.

The division has its headquarters at Garacharma main campus, a full-fledged
research laboratory at Marine hill campus to carry out biodiversity/ resource
management studies and mariculture activities and a brackish water fish farm complex
at Sippighat and freshwater complex at Bloomsdale farm. The division has developed
technologies that has addressed the welfare of fishermen community and fish farmers
of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The divisional scientists share a great rapport in
research and extension activities with Andaman Administration, Krishi Vigyan Kendra
to validate/ demonstrate the technologies. The division has collaborated with many
external funding / research agencies like DBT, SAC, INCOIS, ILS, ISRO-RRC etc to carry
out research with specific needs of the islands.

The division has a sanctioned strength of 7 scientists, five of them with Fisheries
Resource Management specialization; one each with aquaculture and fish processing
specialization. At present, two scientists with specialization in Fisheries Resource
Management (FRM) are working on broadly three major research areas viz., Coastal bio-
resource management, aquaculture and capture fisheries with the aim to improve the
productivity of Island fisheries.


Thrust area
With objective to provide a research base to improve the productivity of fisheries
sector of ANI through adaptive and basic research for attaining self sufficiency,
the thrust areas addressed are
Coastal Bio-resource Management
Aquaculture
Capture fisheries

SOCIAL SCIENCE

Realizing the importance of islands agriculture to provide better livelihood
support with integrated approach for the people of these remote islands, CIARI has been
entrusted with the objectives of making these islands self sufficient in food production
and providing the decent livelihood to the population in general and youth in particular.
With the change in macro-economic conditions and requirements of agricultural
commodities, the paradigm of agricultural production has changed. The aspirations of
farm youth have also heightened due to enhanced connectivity and more exposure to
outer world. Keeping the challenges ahead, the Institute has identified the thrust areas
to work upon and Social Science section has been given one of the important themes
Transfer of Technology and Socio-economic impact analysis.

From the very beginning, the section has been playing important role of bridge
between various divisions of CIARI and the farmers of the islands. Before taking up any
technological interventions, the study of social profile of clients/ stakeholders is very
much essential so as to make the technology economically feasible and socially
acceptable. Socio economic variables also play an important role in further adoption of
the technology and its expansion. The job is primarily entrusted to the Social Science
section. For its further refinement, the feedback from field trials is also collected and
synthesised by the section and given to biological scientists. Finally the technology is
assessed and necessary inputs for refinement are collected, synthesised and given back
to biological scientists. Technology development is not the end of job for the researcher
until it spread vertically and horizontally among the stakeholders. Therefore social
scientists come in to the picture by carrying out its impact assessment.

Since the establishment of the institute in the year 1978 all the ToT programmes
were mandated through only one section i.e., Agriculture Economics, Extension and
Sociology (AEES) which, later on was christened finally to Social Science. Over the years,
the efforts in the direction of imparting need based trainings and other capacity
building programme through the social science section have been extended through
collaborative approach. Through its efforts, CIARI have laid landmarks in livelihood
improvement of Tsunami affected small and marginal farmers.

For the effective implementation of the ToT programms in the field adopting
group approach this section has been instrumental in running full fledged programs viz.
Village adoption program, IVLP, TARP in South Andaman District and for the last two
years a ToT program dedicated for North and Middle Andaman District is running in the
name of Out Reach Centre supported by NABARD. Over here 1200 farmers have been
trained in agriculture and allied fields, a total of 173 demonstrations covering 37.36 ha
and Seed Village Concept of Rice was introduced in participatory mode. Dhal Mill,
Vermicompost unit, Piggery, Goatry, Duckery, Fresh water Fish seed production ,
Earthworm production are selected interventions for livelihood support of the
stakeholders.

For the holistic implementation of the agricultural and rural development
programmes, this section has functional links with the State Development Departments
like Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Services, Fisheries, Rural
Development, Health services, Social Welfare Advisory Board, Nationalized Banks,
NABARD, PRIs and the NGOs

Thrust area
Socio economic analysis and policy issues
Impact studies on the technologies developed and their adoption.
Studies on agricultural marketing and development linkages.
Technology assessment, refinement and dissemination.
Capacity building of the stakeholders in agriculture and allied fields through
customized and vocational trainings
Consultancy in agriculture and allied fields
Advisory services, ATIC, KCC activities and coordination in Institute
programmes.

HINDI CELL
For the successful implementation of the official language policy and the target
fixed in the annual programme, efforts were made for doing maximum work in official
language.

PME CELL
The PME works as nodal point for prioritization, monitoring and evaluation of
the projects of the institute. Besides, it has facilitated the conduct of IRC from 28 th to
30 th June and 11 th July, 2012 in the presence of four eminent Scientist Dr. S.D.
Tripathi, Former Director, CIFA & CIFE, Mumbai (as an Expert in the Fisheries), Dr. C.L.
Acharya, Former Director Extension Education (HPAU, Palampur) & Indian Institute of
Soil Science(ICAR),Bhopal (as an Expert in Soil Science), Dr. R.K. Singh, Ex-Director
(Research), NDUAT, Faizabad (as an Expert in the Field Crops) and Dr. W.S. Dhillon,
Director,Punjab Horticultural Post Harvest Technology Centre, PAU Campus, Ludhiana
(as an Expert in Post Harvest & IFS) with an objective to give first hand information and
orientation to the fellow scientist on the field experiments conducted. Fifty two ongoing
projects and nine new projects totalling to sixty one were presented by the Scientists

ITMU CELL
Institute Technology Management Unit is an integral unit of IARI involved in
protection, management and commercialization of innovative technologies and
overarch the global need. It acts as an interface between R & D, knowledge revolution
and stakeholders. The diversity of task performed by ITMU include IPR management,
technology licensing, developing public-private partnership, organising Industry-
Institute meet to expand and establish good economic-ties. ITMU also manages the
project "XIth Plan ICAR Scheme on Intellectual Management and
Transfer/ Commercialization of Agricultural Technologies" under ICAR.

SUB-DIC
Bioinformatics Centre of CIARI serves as an active site for bioinformatics
research (mainly documentation of island biodiversity) and development in the remote
union territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India. It provides computational
support and training to the scientists and students & also offers traineeships and
studentships to deserving bioinformatics students. The databases on butterfly,
horticultural biodiversity, coral & sponges were developed using ASP.Net and MS SQL,
which provides information on all bioresources available in the island. This database is
user friendly and provides all the information about butterflies to the end user like
researcher, academician and development departments.

ARIS CELL
ARIS cell is equipped with FTDMA VSAT through which the internet has been
distributed to all important sections and officers, individual computer systems with
color and black and white printing and scanning facilities, electronics gadgets, digital
facility related to information documentation and dissemination.

ABOUT LIBRARY
CIARI library plays an important role in this island as a center for knowledge and
information related to the institutes mandate. It serves to fulfill the need of the
scientists, research workers, students from local research and educational institutes of
these island and mainland. Library has the facilities for on and off line information
retrieval, networking and other accessories. During the span of three decades, the
Library has grown in size to earn the reputation of having exhaustive collection of books
and journals. The existing collection of books has extensive collection of resource
materials in the fields of Horticulture, Field Crops, Natural Resource Management,
Animal Sciences, Biotechnology, Fisheries Science, Social Science and many other
related areas which are regularly enriched by adding more current, important scientific
and technical books, journal through subscription gifts and on exchange basis. The
library has been enriched with 6141 books, 2520 miscellaneous publications in addition
to journals by subscription, gratis, on exchange basis and technical books. During the
report year the library procured 514 books which included 188 in Hindi and 331 in
English. A total of 78 Indian and 8 foreign journals were subscribed during the year.
Gratis publications such as Annual Report, Newsletter and Research Bulletin received
from India and Foreign Institutes as exchange relationship is also maintained. Internet
services via VSAT connection are also available for easy access to this information.
Special collection of island related books, Hindi books along with reprographic facility is
also available. Besides, efforts have been made to acquire non-conventional literatures
such as technical reports, reports on socio-economic study and annual reports from
various sources to be kept as a ready reckoner for the users.
Department Office Address Phone No & Fax E-mail Id
ICAR-CENTRAL
ISLAND
AGRICULTURAL
RESEARCH
INSTITUTE
The Director
Central Island
Agricultural
Research Institute,
Post Box No.: 181,
Port Blair-744101,
Andaman & Nicobar
Islands
03192- 250341 (O)
03192- 250436 (O)
03192- 251068 (F)
8348001000
directorcaripb@gmail.com
cari.and@nic.in

Website of department: http:/ / cari.res.in