Cabinet approves Rs 25 cr to agro-eco research centres, units

The government today approved grants-in-aid of Rs 25 crore to agro-economic research centres and units beyond 2016-17.
"The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has approved to extend the grants-in-aid support to the existing network of 12 Agro-Economic Research Centres (AERCs) and three Agro-Economic Research Units (AERUs) for one more year that is up to 2017-18," an official statement said.
According to the statement, an amount of Rs 25 crore will be required to continue the grants-in-aid to the existing 15 AERCs/AERUs.
The employees of 12 AERCs and three AERUs situated in different states will be benefited. This would provide policy oriented Agro Economic Research inputs through field studies and reviewing / monitoring of Flagship programmes of the agriculture and allied sector.

This would lead to better agricultural development policy and programmes which in turn would raise employment potential in both farm and non-farm areas, it said.
It will be reviewed after one year for taking the final decision on the recommendations of the review committee, chaired by S M Jharwal, Chancellor, India Gandhi National Tribal University. This committee was set up by the Department of Agriculture, Cooperation & Farmers Welfare (DACFW), to review the functioning of AERCs/AERUs.

The review committee has recommended that the AERCs/AERUs must be retained and strengthened and that the present pattern of grant-in-aid to these grass-root research institutions must be continued. The committee has also made recommendations regarding functioning and improving governance of the AERCs/AERUs.

The Agro-Economic Research (AER) Scheme is an on-going scheme initiated in 1954-55 for undertaking research studies on agro-economic problems of the country.
The Department of Agriculture & Cooperation has set up 15 AERCs/AERUs in different Universities/Institutes with a view to conduct policy oriented research/evaluation studies on topics of interest.