The Agriculture and Sustainable Rural Development (ASRD) division aims to take up research for providing evidence based policy inputs towards growth of agricultural and rural sector of the country. The rural areas mainly depends upon agriculture as a means of livelihood, its growth is critically dependent upon growth of agriculture for poverty eradication, income enhancement, employment and livelihood generation. But agriculture in the country faces many challenges like unpredictable monsoons and weather which impact the crop production and yield. Natural calamities like flood, drought, cyclones etc. damage the crop, livestock and land also adversely impact agriculture. Heavy loss caused to agriculture by these factors results in poverty and underdevelopment of rural areas. Apart from this another important factor is the sustainability of agricultural practices. As it has been observed that measures taken in the past are now creating many unwanted side effects in this sector, therefore issue of sustainability is to be addressed very carefully. Another aspect is coordination among rural development initiatives taken by Government, National Missions and state level strategies.

Against the above background, ASRD group intends to carry out research in following thematic areas:

1. Rural needs Identification and Impact Analysis (RIIA)
   • S & T content, sustainability assessment and direction in government schemes
   • Impact analysis of rural development schemes
   • Impact analysis of CSIR Technologies to highlight their contribution in socio-economic development
2. Sustainable Rural Innovations Policy (SRIP)
   • Stimulating rural innovations (by networking of academic institutions, line departments, grass-root local rural institutions, other stakeholder etc)
   • Science and Technology ( S & T) for livelihood creation in rural areas through effective transfer/implementation of technologies from agencies like CSIR
3. Food Processing and Agri-business (FPA)
   • National Mission on Food Processing- Sunrise sector for income and employment generation, Enterprise creation through value addition, import substitution
   • Opportunities and challenges for MSME/Start-ups and industry in general like Cold Storage; Capacity and efficiency development, Marketing, GI, Identifier (mark). etc.

Activities currently ongoing/ planned to be initiated in near future

1. Creating Livelihood Opportunities in Rural Areas through CSIR Technologies Using UBA-VIBHA Network: The ongoing collaboration between CSIR and Unnat Bharat Abhiyan(UBA) & Vijnana Bharti(VIBHA) aims to create livelihood opportunities in rural areas through CSIR Technologies using UBA-VIBHA Network. In this, showcasing of CSIR technologies may be done and various stakeholders from rural areas may be identified who could be potential users of CSIR technologies thereby resulting in creation of business enterprises leading to creation of livelihood opportunities in rural areas
2. Socio-impact assessment of ‘Kisan Sabha’ App: Kisan Sabha App has been developed as a part of MoU signed between CSIR and Private Enterprise. The objective is to help the farmers in searching for markets to sell their produce and in finding transport for carrying the produce to the nearest market. In the project the impact assessment would be done about how this App has been able to help the farmers. As a start a Brainstorming session with experts is being planned for identification of parameters to assess socio-economic impact of Kisan Sabha
3. Assessment of Blue water dependency of crops for sustainable food supply of India: In this project the water dependency of the crops would be assessed. This may be done state-wise or crop-wise. Based on the assessment future water requirements may be estimated.
4. Bridging traditional food and health systems with agribusiness solutions: In this the linkages between traditional food and health systems on one side and modern agribusiness solutions on the other may be studied thereby exploring the creation of business opportunities and reviving of traditional crops.
5. Organizing training program on CSIR technologies for Self Help Groups as identified under Kisan Sabha: Training programme for Women Trainee of Self Help Groups as identified under Kisan Sabha may be organized. These may be taken from participants registered under Kisan Sabha and technologies details may be obtained from concerned CSIR labs.