ICAR-IASRI Annual Report 2016-17

Abstract

ICAR-Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute (ICAR-IASRI), an ISO 9001:2008 certified Institute with glorious tradition of carrying out research, teaching and training in the area of Agricultural Statistics and Informatics. This report highlights the research achievements made, new methodologies developed, significant advisory and consultancy services provided, dissemination of knowledge acquired and human resource development during 2016-17. The scientists, technical personnel, administrative, finance and other staff of the Institute have put in their best efforts in fulfilling the mandate of the Institute. During the year, research was carried out under 86 research projects (36 Institute funded, 6 Collaborative, 40 Externally funded, 1 National Fellow Scheme and 3 Consultancy Projects) in various thrust areas. A landmark for the Institute this year is that under the FAO sponsored project, sampling methodologies for estimation of crop area and yield under mixed and continuous cropping have been developed for different situations prevailing in different countries. The developed methodology has been field tested in the three identified countries by the FAO, one each in Asia-Pacific, Africa and Latin America/Caribbean region, i.e. Indonesia, Rwanda and Jamaica respectively. The developed sampling methodology is likely to be adopted globally specially in developing countries in future. The methodology is accepted and is published by the FAO as a Technical Report of Global Office. An online portal named ‘ Vigyan Kendra Knowledge Network’ (http://kvk.icar.gov.in/) has been developed to disseminate knowledge and information from KVKs to farmers. A KVK Mobile App for the farmers has been developed in the Android platform and is available at Google Play Store. Personnel Management System for managing the cadre strength and transfer of the scientific staff has been developed and implemented in ICAR. Portal (http://.icar. gov.in) has been enriched by providing links of several online resources available/developed at different ICAR institutes (269 under 15 broad headings) and an Interportal Harvester (http://.icar.gov.in/ohs-2.3.1/). An algorithm using R language has been developed for constructing A-optimal balanced bipartite (BBPB) designs and weighted A-optimal block designs. Developed various R package like WaveLetLongMemory, dhga (https://CRAN.Rproject.org/package=dhga); BootMRMR (https://CRAN.Rproject.org/package=BootMRMR), GSAQ (https://CRAN.Rproject.org/package=GSAQ). DIRProt, A web server for discriminating the insecticide resistance proteins from non-resistant proteins (http:// cabgrid.res.in:8080/dirprot/);GinMicrosatDb-Genome-Wide Microsatellite Markers Database for Sesame (http:/backwin. cabgrid.res.in:8080/Gingelly7); (Onion Genomic Resource http://webtom.cabgrid.res.in/ogr/) hosting comprehensive information of assembly of available onion ESTs; web server iAMPpred (http://cabgrid.res.in:8080/amppred/) for predicting the propensity of a candidate peptide and a computational tool DCDNC (http://cabgrid.res.in:8080/DCDNC/) for discrimination of CDS sequence from intronic sequence have been developed. During the year, 20 training programmes (Six under Centre of Advanced Faculty Training, Two Winter Schools, Eight training programmes for Technical Personnels and Four other training programmes) were organized in which 376 participants were imparted training. During the year, a total of 33 students (7 Ph.D. (Agricultural Statistics), 7 M.Sc. (Agricultural Statistics), 3 Ph.D. (Computer Application), 6 M.Sc. (Computer Application), 5 Ph.D. (Bioinformatics) and 5 M.Sc. (Bioinformatics)) were admitted. A Senior Certificate Course in Agricultural Statistics and Computing was also organized. The Institute has published 173 research papers in National and International refereed Journals along with 18 articles in Hindi-Sankhiki-Vimarsh, 25 Reference Manuals, 40 popular articles/short communications, 7 Project Reports,1 book, 12 book chapters and 5 Technical Reports and Bulletins. Some of faculty members received academic distinctions during the year. Dr. Rajender Parsad recieved NAAS Recognition Award 2015-16 for significant contributions to Social Sciences in XIII Agricultural Science Congress 2017; Dr. A.R. Rao was conferred as Fellow, National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS) under section Social Sciences and awarded as Fellow, Indian Society of Genetics and Plant Breeding. Dr. A.R. Rao was also awarded Prof. P.V. Sukhatme Gold Medal by the Indian Society of Agricultural Statistics. Dr. Hukum Chandra was conferred as Fellow of the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS). Dr. R.K. Paul received Young Scientist Award in Social Sciences for the biennium 2015-16 from National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS). Dr. Sukanta Dash received the MN Das Memorial Young Scientist Award from Society of Statistics, Computer and Application. Dr. P.K. Meher received Dr. G.R. Seth Memorial Young Scientist Award from Indian Society of Agricultural Statistics. Mr. Samredra Das received Netaji Subhas-ICAR International Fellowship for pursuing Ph.D. in Foreign University. Dr. M.A. Iquebal received SESR Computational Biologist 2016 award from Society for Educational and Scientific Research. During the period under report scientists were deputed on different assignments to Rome, Italy; Chiba, Japan; Thimpu, Bhutan; Addis Ababa, Ethiopia;Kigali, Rwanda; Kingston, Jamaica and Sri Lanka.