Central Arid Zone Research Institute

The Central Arid Zone Research Institute (CAZRI) is one of the biggest research institutes of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), an autonomous organization working under the aegis of the Department of Agriculture Research and Education (DARE) of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare of Government of India. CAZRI has the distinction of being one of the first institutes in the world exclusively devoted to arid zone research and development. The institute made a humble beginning in 1952 when Government of India initiated Desert Afforestation Research Station at Jodhpur to carry out research on sand dune stabilization and for establishment of shelter belt plantations to arrest wind erosion. It was reorganized as Desert Afforestation and Soil Conservation Station in 1957 and finally in its present form Central Arid Zone Research Institute in 1959 on recommendation of the UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) expert, Prof. C.S. Christian of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australia. In 1966, the institute was brought under the administrative control of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), New Delhi.

The institute conducts multi-disciplinary research to seek solutions to the problems of farming in arid regions of the country. The hot arid zone covers about 32 million ha area in the states of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Punjab, Haryana, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, while the cold arid zone, covering about 7 million ha area, is located in the states of Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh.

The Institute earned the prestigious Sardar Patel Outstanding ICAR Institution Award for the Year - 2017 for the Large Institute Category. Dr. Trilochan Mohapatra, Secretary (DARE) & DG (ICAR) conferred the Award including Plaque, Citation and Certificate during an event organized at the ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), Pusa, New Delhi. Provided by Wikipedia