For the first time, ICAR to open its doors for joint research with private sector
The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has decided for the first time to allow the private sector to joint research, while there are plans to undertake collaborative projects in education for which detailed guidelines will be ready in the next two months.
Briefing the media on the closing day of the foundation day celebration, ICAR General Manager Himanshu Pathak said the research will be conducted jointly after signing an agreement with a company, and the technology after its development will be jointly owned by both ICAR and the private company. He said that any royalties from distributing the technology would be shared equally by both.
Asked about the affordability of such technology for small and marginal farmers, who make up 86 percent of the agricultural population, he said there would be no problem and it might be cheaper than what private companies offer when developing it on their own. He stressed that public sector research will also continue, in parallel, and will be an option for the private sector to cooperate.
Memorandum of Understanding with 13 companies
The general manager said that the current program of distributing technology through private companies and the contract research program will also continue. Technologies developed by ICAR are distributed through interested private companies who pay royalties to the Institute while any private company may conduct research through the ICAR Institute by funding a program with rights over the technology for some fixed years, whenever it is developed.
On Tuesday, ICAR announced the signing of memorandums of understanding with 13 companies to transfer 17 technologies. In 2022 and 2323, as many as 125 MoUs were signed.
Agrinnovate India Limited (AgIn), the commercial arm of ICAR, acts as an interface between the ICAR/NARS research institutes and various public and private stakeholders. Officials said the MOUs signed by AgIn on behalf of ICAR, will bring the government ₹1.21 crore in license fees to be paid by the companies. The “Genotype Herbicide Resistant Trait Donor Rice” technology, developed by IARI (Pusa Institute), has been transferred to Leadbeter Seeds (a subsidiary of Mahyco Grow). Two technologies for the production of small potato processing machines – air technology and in vitro plant acclimatization technology, developed by CPRI, Shimla, have been transferred to UniAgri Biosciences of Punjab.
Gurugram-based IPL Biologicals has obtained technology for a new method of storage and delivery of PGPR/microbeads through biocapsules, as well as another biosynthesis technology titled “CSR GROW-SURE- A Biomsart Bio-Consortia for Enhancing Agro-Horticultural Crop Yields in Salt-Affected Soils” as well as shaping The bio is titled “Microbial Compositions of Salt-Affected Soils: Halo-MIX.”
Regarding private sector participation in education and extension, the officials said that the guidelines are not yet in place and could be finalized as soon as possible.