To address these challenges and to generate additional income and employment for the poor, the role of agricultural research and development, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has initiated National Agricultural Innovation Project (NAIP), which accords high priority to generation and transfer of agricultural technologies, and suggests innovations in the technology system.
The NAIP has four objectives –
- To build the critical capacity of the ICAR as a catalyzing agent for management of change in the Indian NARS.
- To promote ‘production to consumption systems research’ in priority areas/ themes to enhance productivity, nutrition, profitability, income and employment.
- To improve livelihood security of rural people living in the selected disadvantaged regions through technology-led innovation systems, encompassing the wider process of social and economic change covering all stakeholders.
- To build capacity to undertake basic and strategic research in frontier areas of agricultural sciences to meet challenges in technology development in the immediate and predictable future.
The ICAR has accordingly designed four components under the NAIP for implementation across the country. The Assam Agricultural University (AAU) is awarded two sub-projects under the research on Production to Consumption System (Component-2) and research on Sustainable Rural Livelihood Security (Component-3) respectively.
