ICAR-Indian Institute of Farming Systems Research (IIFSR) is contributing significantly towards the development of agronomic management practices, encouraging efficient use of nutrients and suitable alternative cropping systems and methodologies for assessment and evaluation of crop management practices at country level since its origin of 71 years. However, since 2010 onwards the mandate of institute was changed from cropping system to farming systems perspective in order to address the holistic issues of agriculture. At present, integrated farming system (IFS) research is considered an effective tool to address many challenges in agriculture today, including profitability, production sustainability, resource use efficiency, food and nutritional security, employability and climate change.

Looking to the brief developmental history of the institute, it is found that the mandated research of the present IIFSR has its roots before India’s independence period. Efforts in this direction were initiated with the visit of Dr A B Stewart of Macaulay Institute of Soil Research, Aberdeen, U. K., in forties which led to the base for genesis of Cropping System Research Project. Dr A B Stewart was invited by the then ‘Imperial Council of Agricultural Research’ to review the status of soil in respect of fertility in general, and manuring in particular, and as a fruit to suggest necessary steps which might be taken to obtain adequate information under different conditions of soil and climate within a very short time so that the agricultural departments could provide relevant instructions to the farmers for increasing the crop yields. His review report, published in 1947, revealed significance of philosophy and practice of fertilizer experimentation in the county. The importance of conducting simple fertilizer trials on cultivator’s fields and complex experiments at selected centres was emphasized in the report which on turn led to initiation of “Simple Fertilizer Trials on Cultivators Fields” in 1953 under Indo-American Technology Cooperation Agreement through “Soil Fertility and Fertilizer Use Project.”

Subsequent to all these developments, Model Agronomic Experiments, i.e., complex experiments on carefully selected centres, were also brought under the purview of the project in 1956 and it was renamed as ‘All India Coordinated Agronomic Experiments Scheme (AICAES)’. With the passage of time, the scheme went through various stages of evolution to keep pace with the development in science and technology and to meet out the increasing demands. The research arena was expanded to include agronomic research encompassing cultural practices, irrigation, nutrition, chemical weed control and multiple cropping. But still the emphasis continued to give focus on soil fertility and fertilizer use efficiency. In 1968-69, the scheme was sanctioned as ‘All India Coordinated Agronomic Research Project (AICARP) with two components viz; “Model Agronomic Experiments” and “Simple Fertilizer Trials”.

However, after ushering of the green revolution, the agricultural research in India remained centric only on individual crops in isolation. But very soon for the cause of sustainable development need was felt to have system approach. This realization might have given an impetus to start cropping systemsoriented research and the project was upgraded into a Directorate during 7th five-year plan and was established as the ‘Project Directorate for Cropping Systems Research (PDCSR), which became functional in March, 1989 with its headquarters at Modipuram, Meerut, U.P. Further, during 11thfive-year plan PDCSR has been re-designated as ‘Project Directorate for Farming Systems Research (PDFSR)’ during 2009-2010. During 2014 (12thfive-year plan) PDFSR was upgraded to a full-fledged institute and renamed as “ICAR-Indian Institute of Farming Systems Research” besides AICRP on IFS (74 centres) and AINP-OF (20 co-operating centres) as an integral part of institute, covering States/ UTs. Presently, the institute has three research divisions and one section besides one project coordinating unit to address the mandate.