CAZRI — ICAR–Central Arid Zone Research Institute, Jodhpur (Rajasthan): India's Nodal Dryland and Thar Desert Research Institute for Arid-Zone Crops, Agroforestry, Sand Dune Stabilisation and Pastoral Systems

The ICAR–Central Arid Zone Research Institute (CAZRI), headquartered at Jodhpur 342003, Rajasthan, is the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)'s nodal institute for research on the land, water and biological resources of India's arid and semi-arid regions — the hot arid Thar Desert zone (covering the bulk of Rajasthan, parts of Gujarat and Haryana) and the cold arid zone (Ladakh, Spiti, Lahaul). Together these zones account for approximately 12% of India's total geographical area and support tens of millions of farmers and pastoralists under harsh rainfall deficits (below 300 mm/year in hyper-arid tracts). CAZRI was established in 1952 as the Desert Afforestation and Pasture Development Station under the Union Ministry of Agriculture, renamed the Central Arid Zone Research Institute in 1957, and brought formally under ICAR. CAZRI reports to ICAR under the Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE) of the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, and works closely with ICAR-CRIDA (Hyderabad) on the semi-arid and rainfed continuum, with the ICAR soil survey institute on land-degradation mapping, and with Central schemes including NICRA and NMSA for climate-change adaptation in dryland systems.

At a glance

• Body type: Central research institute of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), under DARE / MoAFW.
• Founded: 1952 as the Desert Afforestation and Pasture Development Station; renamed Central Arid Zone Research Institute (CAZRI) in 1957.
• Headquarters: Jodhpur 342003, Rajasthan.
• Regional research stations: Pali (Rajasthan); Beechwal / Bikaner (Rajasthan, hot hyper-arid); Bhuj (Kutch, Gujarat, hot arid); Kukma (Kutch, Gujarat, coastal arid); Leh (Ladakh UT, cold arid).
• Geographic mandate: Hot arid zone (Thar Desert, Kutch, Deccan arid tracts); cold arid zone (Ladakh, Spiti, Lahaul).
• Flagship crops: Pearl millet (bajra), cluster bean (guar), moth bean, kharif sorghum, sesame; dryland horticultural varieties of pomegranate, ber, date palm, aonla, ker, sangri.
• Agroforestry lead: Coordinating institute for AICRPAF (All India Coordinated Research Project on Agroforestry), ~25 collaborating centres.
• Water harvesting: Tanka (underground cistern) and khadin (floodwater-spread embankment) systems documented and promoted in arid villages.
• Sand dune stabilisation: Integrated mechanical + biological stabilisation packages; feeds India's UNCCD desertification-control obligations.
• Website: cazri.res.in.

Origins — Desert Afforestation Station (1952) to CAZRI (1957)

CAZRI's roots lie in post-Independence India's recognition that the Thar Desert — the world's most densely populated desert — required dedicated scientific attention to halt advancing desertification and improve the livelihood base of its farming and pastoral communities. The Desert Afforestation and Pasture Development Station was set up at Jodhpur in 1952 under the Union Ministry of Agriculture to study sand dune stabilisation, pasture development and tree species suited to arid conditions. In 1957, the Government of India expanded the mandate and renamed it the Central Arid Zone Research Institute, bringing it under ICAR with a broader research agenda covering crops, soils, water, livestock and socioeconomics of the arid zone. Over the following decades CAZRI's mandate expanded to cover the cold arid zone of Ladakh and Spiti (through the Leh station) and the Kutch arid tractof Gujarat (Bhuj and Kukma stations), making it the only ICAR institute simultaneously covering India's hot and cold desert systems.

Geographic mandate — hot arid and cold arid zones

India's arid and semi-arid zones are typically defined by the CAZRI classification as areas receiving below 500 mm mean annual rainfall, with the hot hyper-arid core of the Thar receiving below 300 mm (and parts of Jaisalmer below 150 mm). CAZRI's research territory spans:

• Hot arid zone (Type I — Thar Desert): Rajasthan west of the Aravallis — Barmer, Jaisalmer, Bikaner, Jodhpur, Pali, Nagaur, Sikar, Churu, Jhunjhunu districts — plus the arid extensions into Haryana (Mahendragarh), Punjab (Sri Ganganagar) and Gujarat (Kutch, Banaskantha, Patan). The Thar is the dominant research zone, with principal stations at Jodhpur (HQ) and Bikaner.
• Hot arid zone (Type II — Kutch and Deccan pockets): The arid plains of Kutch, Gujarat (Bhuj, Kukma stations), and scattered hyper-arid pockets in peninsular India.
• Cold arid zone (Ladakh and trans-Himalayan): The cold deserts of Leh–Ladakh (Union Territory), Spiti (Himachal Pradesh) and Lahaul, at altitudes of 3,000–4,500 m with annual rainfall of 50–150 mm. The Leh station researches crops (cold-hardy peas, barley, buckwheat), pasture species and agroforestry under extreme temperature ranges. This zone is strategically important for food security and biodiversity in the trans-Himalayan region.

Crops — pearl millet, cluster bean, moth bean and dryland horticulture

CAZRI's crop research concentrates on the species that sustain the Thar farming system under severe moisture stress:

• Pearl millet (bajra, Pennisetum glaucum): the staple kharif food grain of Rajasthan, sown after the first monsoon rains in July and harvested by September–October. CAZRI maintains an extensive germplasm collection and, in collaboration with ICAR-IIMR (Hyderabad), has released arid-adapted varieties and OPVs for low-rainfall tracts. Pearl millet's 60–70-day cycle under good rains makes it the only reliable cereal in years with below-250 mm effective rainfall.
• Cluster bean (guar, Cyamopsis tetragonoloba): Rajasthan produces approximately 80% of the world's guar, and guar gum is India's single largest agricultural-origin export commodity by value. CAZRI holds one of India's largest guar germplasm collections and has released improved lines with higher endosperm (gum) content, drought tolerance and lodging resistance. Cluster bean is grown as both a vegetable (green pods — guar phali) and an industrial crop (dried seeds for gum extraction), and the straw and pods are valuable fodder.
• Moth bean (Vigna aconitifolia):the most drought-tolerant grain legume in Indian agriculture, unique to the arid zone. Even in 150–200 mm rainfall years, moth bean can produce a small harvest from the stored soil moisture, providing protein to subsistence farm households and nitrogen to the soil. CAZRI's moth bean germplasm collection is nationally unique.
• Dryland horticulture: CAZRI has developed and released improved varieties of pomegranate (Punica granatum, well suited to arid conditions under drip irrigation), ber (Ziziphus mauritiana — Indian jujube, one of the most drought-tolerant fruit trees in the world), date palm (Phoenix dactylifera, natural to hyper-arid zones), aonla (Indian gooseberry, Phyllanthus emblica), and niche arid-zone produce — ker (Capparis decidua, used for the Rajasthani delicacy ker sangri) and sangri (pods of khejri / Prosopis cineraria).

Agroforestry — khejri and AICRPAF

Agroforestry is central to CAZRI's research identity because in the arid zone, a crop-only system is inherently fragile; the integration of perennial woody species with field crops (silvo-arable) or with grasslands (silvopasture) is the traditional Rajasthani system that CAZRI's scientists have studied, quantified and improved:

• Khejri (Prosopis cineraria): the kalpavriksha(wish-fulfilling tree) of Rajasthan — declared the state tree in 1983 — is a deep-rooted, drought-hardy nitrogen-fixing leguminous tree grown on every farm in the Thar. CAZRI research has shown that khejri's canopy provides partial shade that improves soil moisture retention, its leaf biomass (lopped pre-monsoon as loong) is emergency fodder for cattle and camels when grasses dry, its pods (sangri) are a human food, and its biomass adds organic carbon to the extremely thin arid soils. Khejri-bajra intercropping — the traditional oranssystem — is one of AICRPAF's most studied models.
• AICRPAF — All India Coordinated Research Project on Agroforestry: CAZRI is the coordinating institute, running approximately 25 collaborating centres across India in diverse agro-ecological zones (semi-arid, humid, coastal, hilly), testing poplar-wheat (Punjab / UP), teak-maize (Central India), coconut-cocoa (Kerala), bamboo systems and arid khejri / Acacia systems. AICRPAF outputs feed into the National Agroforestry Policy (NAP, 2014)of the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare and into state-level tree-on-farm incentive schemes under RKVY and the National Mission for a Green India.
• Other species: Acacia tortilis, Prosopis juliflora (for biomass / soil stabilisation, with caution for invasiveness), Calligonum polygonoides and Haloxylon recurvum for hyper-arid dune stabilisation; Ziziphus, Capparis and Salvadora for dry wastelands.

Water harvesting — tanka and khadin systems

In the Thar Desert, even when annual rainfall is only 150–300 mm, the rainfall comes in brief intense bursts during the July–August monsoon. Traditional Rajasthani farmers evolved two contrasting water-harvesting systems to capture this brief pulse — the tanka for domestic use and the khadin for agriculture — both of which CAZRI has studied, standardised and promoted:

• Tanka: an underground cylindrical or rectangular cistern, typically 2–5 m deep, plastered inside with lime mortar, dug in a household courtyard or nearby. Rainfall is collected from a paved catchment (courtyard, rooftop or gently sloping apron) and channelled by a small inlet into the tanka through a filter-mesh. A family tanka of 10,000–30,000 litres can store enough water to supply drinking and cooking needs for 3–6 months after a good monsoon episode. CAZRI research has documented tanka design standards, optimal catchment-to-storage ratios for different rainfall zones, and maintenance protocols. Tankas are now promoted under MGNREGS and Jal Jeevan Mission in desert districts.
• Khadin: a large earthen embankment (bund, sometimes called a dhora) built across the foot of a gentle natural slope to spread and impound monsoon runoff water, allowing slow deep percolation into the soil profile over several weeks post-monsoon. The wetted soil profile downstream of the khadin bund is then cropped in the rabi season — typically wheat, mustard, chickpea or isabgol — using the stored moisture without supplementary irrigation. CAZRI field research in Jodhpur and Bikaner districts has shown that a well-designed khadin can produce 1–3 rabi crops in normal rainfall years, transforming barren wasteland into productive farm land and contributing to the district's groundwater recharge. Khadin geometry, bund height, overflow weir design and crop-management protocols have been standardised by CAZRI engineers and are used by Rajasthan's Ground Water Department and RVUNL for watershed schemes.

Sand dune stabilisation and desertification control

India has the world's largest population living in and around the arid zone, and the southward and eastward advance of the Thar Desert — driven by overgrazing, deforestation, fuelwood extraction and land-use change — has been a policy concern since the 1950s. CAZRI's sand dune stabilisation research is among its oldest and most applied programmes:

• Mechanical stabilisation: installation of brushwood or stone windbreaks — typically in a grid pattern on active dune faces — to reduce wind shear velocity below the threshold for sand saltation. CAZRI has developed cost-optimal spacing guidelines for different dune morphologies (barchan, transverse, longitudinal) and wind regimes.
• Biological stabilisation: establishment on the mechanical base of perennial drought-tolerant grasses — principally Lasiurus sindicus (sewan grass, the natural climax pasture grass of the Indian arid zone), Cenchrus biflorus (bur grass / dhaman), and Panicum turgidum — and shrubs — Calligonum polygonoides, Haloxylon recurvum, and Leptadenia pyrotechnica (khimp). Once the dune face is stabilised, trees (khejri, Acacia, date palm) are planted for permanent productive cover.
• UNCCD and NAP-CD linkage:CAZRI's dune stabilisation data, desertification atlases and land degradation neutrality assessments directly feed India's national reporting under the UNCCD (United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification) and the National Action Programme to Combat Desertification (NAP-CD), jointly maintained by MoEFCC and the Rajasthan/Gujarat state governments. CAZRI publishes India's authoritative desertification atlas, mapping extent, type and trend of desertification across all Indian states.

NICRA and climate resilience in arid villages

Under the National Innovations in Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA) programme — launched in 2011 by ICAR under the National Action Plan on Climate Change, and coordinated by ICAR-CRIDA — CAZRI has implemented Climate Resilient Villages (CRVs) in selected drought-vulnerable villages across Barmer, Jodhpur and Bikaner districts of Rajasthan and in Kutch (Gujarat). The CRV model at CAZRI integrates:

• Demonstration of drought-tolerant pearl millet, moth bean and guar varieties released by CAZRI and IIMR.
• Construction of tanka and farm pond water-harvesting structures under MGNREGS convergence.
• Silvi-pasture / agroforestry establishment on degraded common land.
• Agro-meteorological advisories delivered by CAZRI scientists and KVK Jodhpur through mobile text/voice messaging.
• Crop insurance awareness under PMFBY for arid-zone kharif crops.

CAZRI's NICRA CRV data contribute to ICAR's national assessment of climate-adaptation effectiveness across India's agro-ecological zones.

NMSA and rainfed / arid zone sub-missions

The National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA)— under the NAPCC — includes a Rainfed Area Development (RAD) sub-mission and an Arid Zones sub-mission that draw substantially on CAZRI's technical prescriptions:

• RAD sub-mission: promotes integrated farming systems, watershed conservation and soil-health improvement in rainfed tracts; CAZRI provides arid-zone farming-system packages (khejri agroforestry + bajra/guar/moth bean crop mix) to the state agriculture departments of Rajasthan and Gujarat for deployment under RAD.
• Soil health and organic matter:CAZRI's Soil Science Division conducts long-term field trials on organic matter dynamics in arid soils (typically <0.5% OC in the Thar), and CAZRI-developed land-use prescriptions are embedded in NMSA soil health sub-mission guidance.
• Khadin and tanka under NMSA watershed component: CAZRI water-harvesting designs are referenced in the NMSA watershed and micro-irrigation component guidelines for desert districts.

Pastoral and animal science research

Pastoralism is central to the arid zone livelihood — the Thar's camel herders, sheep and goat pastoralists (Rabaris, Maldharis, Bharvads) are among India's most climate-vulnerable communities. CAZRI's Animal Sciences Division researches:

• Camel (Camelus dromedarius) systems: CAZRI's camel research covers camel traction, camel milk composition and hygiene, camel breed characterisation (Bikaneri Camel, Jaisalmeri Camel), and management under declining pastoral land access. The National Camel Research Centre (NRCE), Bikaner — an ICAR unit — is the dedicated camel breeding-and-research node that CAZRI collaborates with.
• Sheep and goat breeds: Marwari sheep (meat and carpet-wool breed), Chokla sheep (superfine apparel wool), and Marwari / Jaisalmeri / Sirohi goat breeds for arid-zone meat and milk production.
• Carrying capacity and rangeland assessment: CAZRI estimates forage production and livestock carrying capacity of the Thar's rangelands (orans, aagor, gauchar) and contributes data to the National Livestock Mission and state Livestock Development Boards for stocking-density management.
• Khejri silvopasture integration:CAZRI's applied research has quantified the contribution of khejri leaf biomass (loong) to fodder security during dry-season fodder scarcity — critical for the Rashtriya Gokul Mission's livestock-welfare focus in drought years.

Leh station — cold arid zone research

CAZRI's regional research station at Leh, Ladakh is the only ICAR institute presence in the cold arid zone and one of the highest-altitude agricultural research stations in India (approximately 3,500 m above sea level). Research areas include:

• Cold-hardy crop varieties — barley, field pea, buckwheat, turnip, radish — adapted to the 90–120 day frost-free growing season of Ladakh.
• Pashmina goat (Capra hircus) management and fibre yield improvement in collaboration with the ICAR-CSWRI (Wool Research) unit.
• Seabuckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides) as a high-altitude multi-purpose shrub for soil stabilisation, fodder and nutraceutical berries — CAZRI Leh has been a major research station for seabuckthorn varietal improvement in the Indian trans-Himalayan context.
• Traditional Ladakhi water-harvesting (kul irrigation channels) and glacier-water management for rabi cropping under NICRA and NMSA.

Related pages

References

• cazri.res.in — CAZRI official portal: research divisions, regional stations, germplasm collections, publications, projects, technology-transfer bulletins and desertification atlas.
• icar.org.in — Indian Council of Agricultural Research — parent institution of CAZRI.
• agricoop.nic.in — Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare — CAZRI falls under DARE / MoAFW.
• moef.gov.in — Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change — CAZRI's desertification data feeds UNCCD and NAP-CD reporting coordinated by MoEFCC.
• Press Information Bureau (PIB) — releases on CAZRI's desertification atlas, NICRA CRV programme, guar and pearl millet variety releases.

Frequently asked questions

What is CAZRI and when was it founded?

CAZRI — the ICAR–Central Arid Zone Research Institute — is India's nodal research institute for the arid and semi-arid regions, headquartered at Jodhpur, Rajasthan. It was established in 1952 as the Desert Afforestation and Pasture Development Station under the Union Ministry of Agriculture; in 1957 it was renamed the Central Arid Zone Research Institute and brought under the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR). CAZRI's mandate covers research on land, water and biological resources of the hot arid zone (Thar Desert of Rajasthan, Gujarat and Haryana; Deccan arid tracts) and the cold arid zone (Ladakh, Spiti, Lahaul), with the goal of sustaining and improving dryland agricultural and pastoral systems for the approximately 12% of India's area that falls under arid and hyper-arid classification.

Where is CAZRI headquartered and what are its regional research stations?

CAZRI's headquarters are at Jodhpur 342003, Rajasthan, spread across a main campus at Doli Jodhpur with attached experimental farms. CAZRI maintains five regional research stations to cover the agro-ecological diversity of India's arid zones: (1) Pali, Rajasthan — semi-arid transition zone; (2) Beechwal, Bikaner, Rajasthan — hot hyper-arid Thar Desert core; (3) Bhuj, Kutch, Gujarat — hot arid zone; (4) Kukma, Kutch, Gujarat — coastal arid belt; and (5) Leh, Ladakh (Union Territory) — cold arid zone research including high-altitude dryland crop and pasture systems. The Leh station is one of the few high-altitude arid-zone research outposts in India, critical for crop-variety testing under cold desert conditions.

What are the main crops and farming systems CAZRI works on?

CAZRI's crop research concentrates on the short-duration, drought-tolerant crops that sustain the Thar Desert farming system. The flagship crops are: pearl millet (bajra, Pennisetum glaucum) — the staple food grain of Rajasthan and the crop for which CAZRI and ICAR-IIMR together have released multiple arid-adapted varieties; cluster bean (guar, Cyamopsis tetragonoloba) — the global source of guar gum, a major industrial and food hydrocolloid with large export value, where CAZRI holds germplasm and improved lines; moth bean (Vigna aconitifolia) — unique to the arid zone, extremely drought-hardy, also called mat bean; and kharif sorghum, sesame and horse gram. In dryland horticulture CAZRI has released improved varieties of pomegranate, ber (Ziziphus mauritiana), date palm, aonla (Indian gooseberry), ker and sangri for arid conditions. Silvopasture and agroforestry use khejri (Prosopis cineraria), Acacia tortilis and Ziziphus as multi-purpose trees integrated with field crops.

What is tanka and khadin water harvesting, and what is CAZRI's role?

Tanka and khadin are ancient Rajasthan-specific rainwater-harvesting systems that CAZRI has studied, documented and helped revive in the modern context. A tanka (also spelled tanka) is an underground cylindrical or rectangular cistern — typically 2–5 m deep, plastered with lime mortar — dug in a courtyard or near the house to collect rainfall runoff from a paved catchment; family tankas of 10,000–30,000 litres capacity can supply a household's drinking water through a short rainy season. A khadin is a large earthen embankment (dhora) built across the foot of a natural slope to impound rainwater and allow slow deep percolation, creating a wetted zone for post-monsoon kharif or rabi cropping downstream; it is essentially an ancient floodwater-spread farming system. CAZRI researchers have documented that a well-designed khadin can sustain 1–3 rabi crops on the moisture stored in the profile after the monsoon. Both systems align with NMSA watershed sub-mission objectives and are promoted in Rajasthan's desert districts under RKVY and MGNREGS.

What is CAZRI's role in sand dune stabilisation?

Sand dune stabilisation is one of CAZRI's longest-standing research programmes, responding to the threat of shifting dunes encroaching on agricultural land, roads and habitations in the Thar Desert. CAZRI has developed and documented an integrated package: (1) mechanical stabilisation using brushwood or stone windbreaks (shelter belts) to reduce wind velocity; (2) biological stabilisation by establishing perennial drought-tolerant grasses (Lasiurus sindicus, Cenchrus biflorus — dhaman and bur grass) and shrubs (Calligonum polygonoides, Haloxylon recurvum) on the dune face; (3) agroforestry integration — once stabilised, dunes are planted with khejri, Acacia, or date palm to provide permanent vegetative cover and yield fodder and fuel. Field trials at CAZRI's Jodhpur farm and the Beechwal Bikaner station have shown that stabilised dunes under biological cover can transition from mobile sand to productive silvi-pasture within 3–5 years. This work feeds directly into India's reporting obligations under the UNCCD (United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification), and into the National Action Programme to Combat Desertification coordinated by MoEFCC and DOIT, Rajasthan.

What is CAZRI's role in the All India Coordinated Research Project on Agroforestry (AICRPAF)?

CAZRI is the coordinating institute for the All India Coordinated Research Project on Agroforestry (AICRPAF), one of ICAR's multi-location coordinated research projects. AICRPAF runs experiments across approximately 25 State Agricultural University (SAU) and ICAR centre collaborators, testing agroforestry systems — combinations of woody perennials with food crops and/or livestock — under diverse agro-ecological zones. For the arid zone specifically, AICRPAF trials at CAZRI centres document the productivity of khejri-based silvopasture (where Prosopis cineraria trees are intercropped with bajra, moth bean or guar — the lopped green biomass used as fodder for cattle and camels), Acacia-based windbreak systems, and date palm integration. The AICRPAF data feed into India's National Agroforestry Policy (NAP, 2014) under MoAFW and into state-level tree-on-farm incentive programmes under RKVY and the Green India Mission.

How does CAZRI connect to NICRA and NMSA?

CAZRI is a principal participating institute in two major Central mission-mode programmes. (1) NICRA — National Innovations in Climate Resilient Agriculture, launched in 2011 under ICAR and coordinated by CRIDA, Hyderabad — has CAZRI-run Climate Resilient Villages (CRVs) in arid-zone districts of Rajasthan and Gujarat, testing an integrated package of drought-tolerant varieties, water-harvesting structures, crop insurance literacy and mobile agro-advisories delivered to farmers to build adaptation capacity. (2) NMSA — National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture under the National Action Plan on Climate Change — includes a dedicated Rainfed Area Development (RAD) sub-mission and an Arid Zones Sub-mission that draws on CAZRI germplasm and agroforestry prescriptions. CAZRI also contributes to India's National Action Programme to Combat Desertification (NAP-CD) and to UNCCD reporting under the Environment Ministry, providing data on land degradation neutrality in the Thar.

How does CAZRI compare with CRIDA and NBSS&LUP?

CAZRI, CRIDA and NBSS&LUP are three complementary ICAR institutes with overlapping but distinct mandates. CAZRI (Jodhpur) specialises in the hot and cold arid zones — Thar, Kutch and Ladakh — with a deep focus on dryland crops, arid-zone silvopasture, sand dune stabilisation and traditional water-harvesting structures. CRIDA (Hyderabad) covers the broader rainfed and dryland zone across India (including semi-arid), coordinating NICRA and AICRPDA, with a stronger agrometeorology, watershed and contingency-planning dimension. NBSS&LUP — ICAR-National Bureau of Soil Survey and Land Use Planning (Nagpur) — is the national soil-survey and land resource inventory institute that maps soils, land capability and land degradation status across all of India including the arid zones that CAZRI and CRIDA work in. Together the three institutions span arid-zone production research (CAZRI), rainfed-zone systems research (CRIDA) and national soil/land-resource information (NBSS&LUP).

What pastoral and livestock research does CAZRI conduct?

CAZRI's Animal Sciences Division focuses on the livestock systems uniquely adapted to the arid zone — principally camels (Camelus dromedarius), sheep (Marwari and Chokla breeds) and goats (Marwari, Jaisalmeri and Sirohi breeds) that underpin pastoral livelihoods across Rajasthan's desert districts. Research areas include fodder and pasture improvement for arid conditions (carrying-capacity estimation for the Thar, perennial grass seed production, Cenchrus and Lasiurus-based grassland restoration), camel milk and camel-traction research, sheep and goat breeding for desert conditions, and animal health management for pastoral communities. CAZRI also evaluates the role of the khejri tree in the silvopasture system — its leaf biomass (lopped in the pre-monsoon dry season) is a critical emergency fodder for Rajasthan's cattle and camels when grasses dry out. CAZRI's work feeds into DAH&D livestock schemes and the National Livestock Mission.

The 1952 founding as Desert Afforestation and Pasture Development Station, the 1957 renaming as CAZRI, the regional station locations (Pali, Bikaner/Beechwal, Bhuj, Kukma, Leh), the AICRPAF coordination role, tanka and khadin water-harvesting systems, sand dune stabilisation research, and NICRA/NMSA/UNCCD programme linkages above draw on publicly available material on cazri.res.in, icar.org.in and PIB releases. Divisional structure, ongoing projects and germplasm statistics are periodically revised — confirm current details on cazri.res.in before planning research visits, collaborations or technology licensing.