The Research Directorate supervises the mandated research and the research on thrust areas identified by the University, State Government, the ICAR and other national bodies. Such mandates and thrust are usually revisited periodically for improvisations and changes. The statute of the Viswavidyalaya entrusts the Research Council for redefining the areas and making such changes.

The Research Council

 

The Research Council is the policy making body for research in the faculties and the research stations of the University. The Vice-Chancellor is its ex-officio Chairman and the Director of Research is the ex-officio Secretary. It consists of both ex-officio and nominated members. The term of office for the nominated members is for three years. All the Deans of Faculty, Heads of the Department, Dean of Post-Graduate Studies, Director of Extension Education, Directors of the State Departments of Agriculture, Animal Resource Development, Veterinary Services and Fisheries, Chief Conservator of Forests in the State, State Milk Commissioner, all Directors of ICAR institutes located in the State, representatives from Calcutta University, Visva-Bharati and Bose Institute, five Professors nominated by the Vice-Chancellor, four eminent scientists nominated by the Executive Council and two Executive Council nominated farmers are its members. The Research Council frames necessary guidelines with regard to research policy and allocation of fund after taking into consideration the requirements of each department of the University. It arranges annual evaluation of research project in progress for reporting to the Executive Council.

• With the establishment of Regional Nuclear Agricultural Research Centre (RNARC) and with the human resources existing, the university will work towards providing leadership in the frontier areas of agriculture like, effective application of nuclear technology for crop improvement, post-harvest technology, plant nutrition etc. Considering the need of the farming community, the basic services like digital soil map for precision nutrient application and management of problem soil is one of the priority areas of the university.
• The wide range of genetic resources of different crops opens the scope of development of varieties required for the existing diversity of crop, climate and growing conditions of the state.
• The university is planning to utilize the potentiality of Remote Sensing and GIS tools for scaling up technologies generated by the scientists to the farm level in the diverse agro-climatic condition. The university has initiated work on GPS based soil characterization with as a step toward generation of digital soil map at block level. However, this is a huge work and requires active participation of line departments of the state and central agencies like NBSS and ISRO.
• The climate change issue has got priority in recent years. The scientists of the university has been actively working on downscaling future climate scenario for smaller spatial and temporal extent that can be applied to region-specific crop management strategy development for the state in given scenario. The university has put climate change and crop adaptation research programmes at priority for the forthcoming years.
• Few international agencies like ACIAR, ACIAR, CSIRO etc. have started extending financial and technological support for development of cropping strategies in the problematic regions like, red and lateritic zone and coastal saline zone. This has set the priority to develop sustainable and profitable cropping strategies and improve the livelihood of the poor and backward farmers in these problematic zones.
• In increasing arsenic pollution has an adverse influence on human health and nutrition in the vast Gangetic regions. The university has been able to set up 'Niche Area of Excellence' in arsenic research. Given the available modern facilities and richly expert group of scientists working in this field, the university has kept the management of arsenic in food chain as a priority area of research.

There are three Regional Research Stations (RRSs) under this directorate namely, RRS Gayeshpur for technology refinement of the new alluvial zone. It has a sub-station with Regional Research Sub Station (RRSS) Chakdaha. Under red lateritic zone, Regional Research Station is situated at Jhargarm with two sub-stations at RRS Sekhampur, Birbhum and RRSS Raghunathpur at Purulia.

The Research Directorate controls 31 number of All India Coordinated / All India Network programs and voluntary centers scattered over the main campus and its various arms in the Regional Research Stations and Substations. Many of such networked coordinated centres are quite old dating back from the time of establishment of the University. Five of such centres are relatively new dealing with maize, Mullarp, Chickpea, NSP, Weed management. Voluntary centres deal with rice, mushroom, micronutrient, honey bee, spices and onion- garlic.