XXXIV Research Advisory Committee Meeting of ICAR-CRIDA, Hyderabad Organised

28-29 May 2026, Hyderabad

The XXXIV Research Advisory Committee (RAC) Meeting of ICAR-Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture, Hyderabad was organized during 28–29 May 2026 in hybrid mode at the institute under the chairmanship of Dr Arvind Kumar Shukla, Vice Chancellor, RVSKVV, Gwalior.

The meeting was attended by RAC members including Dr Jagdish Rane, Director, ICAR-CIAH, Bikaner; Dr M.A. Shankar, Former Director of Research, UAS, Bengaluru; Dr C.R. Mehta, Director, ICAR-CIAE, Bhopal; Dr Yadvinder Singh, Former Head, Department of Soils, PAU, Ludhiana; Dr Shalander Kumar, Deputy Global Research Program Director, ICRISAT; and Dr A. Velmurugan, Assistant Director General (S&WM), ICAR.

Welcoming the Chairperson and RAC members, Dr V.K. Singh, Director, ICAR-CRIDA, presented an overview of the institute’s major research achievements, ongoing initiatives, and contributions towards improving the livelihoods of smallholder farmers in dryland regions of the country.

Dr K.A. Gopinath, Member Secretary, presented the Action Taken Report (ATR) on the recommendations of the previous XXXIII RAC meeting, which was subsequently approved by the Committee.

During the deliberations, the Chairman appreciated the contributions of ICAR-CRIDA, AICRPDA, and AICRPAM towards rainfed agriculture research and emphasized that climate, weather, and water remain the major challenges in dryland agriculture, requiring focused and prioritized research interventions. He also highlighted the need to reduce excessive chemical input use and stressed upon the importance of the SEHAT (Science Excellence for Health through Agricultural Transformation) initiative jointly launched by ICAR and ICMR.

The RAC members provided several valuable suggestions for strengthening future research programmes. Dr. M.A. Shankar emphasized the need for enhanced collaboration between AICRPDA and AICRPAM for developing climate-resilient technologies, agroforestry systems, and natural resource management strategies.

Dr. Shalander Kumar suggested adopting a landscape approach for the development and scaling-up of integrated farming systems in collaboration with ICAR-IIFSR, Modipuram.

Dr. C.R. Mehta highlighted the importance of improving resource-use efficiency through engineering interventions, while Dr. Yadvinder Singh recommended evaluating the benefit-cost ratio of major technologies developed by the institute.

Dr. Jagdish Rane suggested integrating crop improvement programmes with natural resource management initiatives, and Dr. A. Velmurugan emphasized the need to develop comprehensive databases from CRIDA, AICRPDA, AICRPAM, and NICRA programmes for generating suitable AI and machine learning models.

The RAC members also visited the institute’s research farms and interacted with the scientists to review ongoing research activities and field-level innovations.

(Source: ICAR-Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture, Hyderabad)