What is CRIDA and when was it founded?

CRIDA — the Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture — is the Indian Council of Agricultural Research's nodal institute for rainfed and dryland agriculture, headquartered at Santoshnagar, Hyderabad 500059 in Telangana. It was formally established in 1985 by upgrading the Hyderabad centre of the All India Coordinated Research Project for Dryland Agriculture (AICRPDA), which had been running at the site since 1970. CRIDA reports to ICAR under the Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE), Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Government of India, and works to a mandate covering research on rainfed farming systems, in-situ soil-moisture conservation, drought-tolerant cropping, agrometeorology, watershed development and climate-resilient agriculture.

What is the difference between AICRPDA and NICRA — and how does CRIDA coordinate them?

AICRPDA (All India Coordinated Research Project for Dryland Agriculture), launched in 1970 with support from the Canadian International Development Agency and the World Bank, is India's multi-location varietal, agronomy and cropping-systems trial network for rainfed agriculture — running through 25+ collaborating centres in State Agricultural Universities and ICAR institutes across India's rainfed districts. AICRPAM (All India Coordinated Research Project on Agrometeorology) is the parallel network of 25+ agrometeorology centres feeding the Gramin Krishi Mausam Sewa (GKMS) block-level weather advisory pipeline. NICRA (National Innovations in Climate Resilient Agriculture) is the flagship ICAR climate-adaptation mission launched in 2011 and led scientifically by CRIDA — combining Strategic Research on climate impacts, Technology Demonstration in 151 Climate Resilient Villages (CRVs) across all districts, and Capacity Building of researchers and extension officers. CRIDA is the coordinating institute for all three.

What are District Agriculture Contingency Plans (DACPs)?

District Agriculture Contingency Plans, prepared by CRIDA in coordination with State Agricultural Universities and State Agriculture Departments, are district-level playbooks covering what to sow, when to sow, and what to do in the event of drought, delayed monsoon onset, mid-season dry spells or terminal droughts. They cover 650+ Indian districts, with each plan carrying district-specific rainfall analysis, kharif and rabi crop calendars, contingency crop and cultivar recommendations by rainfall scenario, and post-drought recovery packages. DACPs are the operational base document used by State Agriculture Departments and Krishi Vigyan Kendras when issuing kharif contingency advisories, and are periodically updated on crida.in.

How much of India's cropped area is rainfed and why does CRIDA matter?

Roughly 51% of India's net cropped area (around 96 million hectares of 141 Mha) is rainfed — the majority of coarse cereals (jowar, bajra, ragi, small millets), pulses (arhar, chickpea, moong, urad), oilseeds (groundnut, soybean, castor, sesamum), and cotton is grown under rainfed conditions in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Jharkhand, Gujarat and the Bundelkhand region. These rainfed farming systems are the most climate-vulnerable in India — subject to erratic monsoon onset, mid-season dry spells, terminal droughts, and increasing heat and rainfall variability. CRIDA is the ICAR nodal institute researching climate-resilient rainfed technologies (cropping systems, drought-tolerant cultivars, moisture conservation, watershed development, agroforestry, livestock integration, contingency planning) and translating them to farmer-facing packages through the KVK network.

What is the Climate Resilient Village (CRV) model under NICRA?

The Climate Resilient Village (CRV) is the field-demonstration unit of the NICRA Technology Demonstration Component (TDC), operationalised through Krishi Vigyan Kendras. Since NICRA's 2011 launch, one KVK-anchored CRV was established in each of 151 selected climatically vulnerable districts across India — later expanded — where a bundle of location-specific climate-adaptation interventions is demonstrated: drought-tolerant cultivars, in-situ moisture conservation (ridge-and-furrow, broad-bed-and-furrow, deep ploughing), farm ponds and check dams, custom hiring centres for timely-sowing implements, agrometeorological advisories, small-ruminant and backyard-poultry livelihood interventions, and community fodder banks. The CRV model is coordinated by CRIDA, run through the ATARI–KVK network, and periodically evaluated for its impact on kharif yields, incomes and resilience in a drought year.

Where is CRIDA and what research farms does it operate?

CRIDA's headquarters and main laboratories are on Santoshnagar Road, Hyderabad 500059 (Telangana). It operates two principal research farms — the Hayathnagar Research Farm (about 30 km south-east of Hyderabad, on the Vijayawada highway, hosting long-term watershed, cropping-systems and agroforestry experiments, and KVK Ranga Reddy) and the Gunegal Research Farm (used for arid-zone livestock, agri-silvi-pastoral and small-ruminant integration research). CRIDA scientists also operate the AICRPDA and AICRPAM coordinated networks and the NICRA Strategic Research platforms sited at collaborating ICAR / SAU centres nationwide.

How can farmers, FPOs and state officers access CRIDA outputs?

Farmers and Farmer Producer Organisations access CRIDA-anchored research through the KVK network (see /krishi-vigyan-kendras) — every district KVK works to the CRIDA-anchored DACP for kharif and rabi contingency advisories, and NICRA-selected KVKs demonstrate the Climate Resilient Village bundle. State Agriculture Departments and SAUs subscribe to CRIDA agromet bulletins, use DACPs during monsoon monitoring, and align state-level Rainfed Area Development (RAD) sub-mission plans with CRIDA recommendations. Research scholars can apply for M.Sc. / Ph.D. work at CRIDA in collaboration with recognised universities and for CRIDA fellowships and short-courses announced on crida.in. Extension officers can nominate for CRIDA / MANAGE / NIPHM short courses on dryland farming, watershed management and climate-resilient agriculture.

CRIDA — ICAR–Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture, Santoshnagar, Hyderabad: India's Nodal Rainfed-Agriculture Research Institute, Home of AICRPDA / AICRPAM and the NICRA Climate-Resilience Programme

The Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture (CRIDA), headquartered on Santoshnagar Road, Hyderabad 500059 in Telangana, is the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)'s nodal institute for rainfed and dryland agriculture. Formally established on 10 April 1985 by upgrading the Hyderabad centre of the All India Coordinated Research Project for Dryland Agriculture (AICRPDA) — which had been running there since 1970 under support from the Canadian International Development Agency and later the World Bank — CRIDA reports to ICAR under the Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE)of the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Government of India. Roughly 51% of India's net cropped area (≈96 million hectares)is rainfed, and it is on this climate-vulnerable half of Indian agriculture — coarse cereals, pulses, oilseeds and cotton grown in the peninsular and central Indian plateaux — that CRIDA's research is focused. The Institute is the coordinating anchor for AICRPDA, the parallel All India Coordinated Research Project on Agrometeorology (AICRPAM), and — since 2011 — the flagship National Innovations in Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA) mission, which operationalises climate-adaptation demonstrations through the KVK network. For the farmer-facing drought-monitoring interface, see our Gramin Krishi Mausam Sewa (GKMS) reference, and for the broader climate-adaptation programme portfolio, see NICRA.

At a glance

Body type: Central research institute of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), under the Crop Science division of DARE.
Founded: 10 April 1985, by upgrading the AICRPDA Hyderabad centre (est. 1970) to a full ICAR institute.
Headquarters: Santoshnagar Road, Saidabad Post, Hyderabad 500059, Telangana.
Parent ministry: Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Government of India (via DARE / ICAR).
Mandate: basic and strategic research on rainfed / dryland farming systems; in-situ soil-moisture conservation and watershed management; drought-tolerant cropping systems; agrometeorology; climate-resilient agriculture; contingency crop planning.
Coordinates: AICRPDA (25+ dryland research centres), AICRPAM (25+ agrometeorology centres) and the ICAR flagship NICRA programme.
Flagship outputs: District Agriculture Contingency Plans (DACPs) covering 650+ Indian districts; the Climate Resilient Village (CRV) model operationalised in 151 KVK-anchored villages; long-term watershed and moisture-conservation datasets from Hayathnagar and Gunegal.
Research farms: Hayathnagar Research Farm (≈30 km south-east of Hyderabad, hosts long-term watershed / cropping-systems / agroforestry trials and KVK Ranga Reddy); Gunegal Research Farm (agri-silvi-pastoral, small-ruminant integration).
Website: crida.in; NICRA portal: nicra-icar.in.

From AICRPDA (1970) to CRIDA (1985)

The origins of CRIDA lie in the All India Coordinated Research Project for Dryland Agriculture (AICRPDA), launched in 1970 by ICAR with technical and financial support from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) — and later the World Bank— to address the persistent yield gap in India's rainfed farming systems, which had been left largely untouched by the first Green Revolution's focus on irrigated wheat and rice. AICRPDA established a national network of 23 research centres (subsequently expanded to 25+) across India's rainfed agro-ecological zones — from the black-soil semi-arid tracts of Solapur, Bijapur, Anantapur and Bellary to the red-soil zones of Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Rewa, and to the northern Bundelkhand, Rajasthan and Himachal rainfed districts. The Hyderabad centre — sited on Santoshnagar Road — was the coordinating unit of the project. In 1985, ICAR upgraded the Hyderabad centre into a full-fledged central research institute — the Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture (CRIDA) — vesting in it both the coordinating role for AICRPDA and its own research programme on rainfed farming systems.

Since 1985, CRIDA has also taken on coordination of the All India Coordinated Research Project on Agrometeorology (AICRPAM), hosting the national agromet research network that feeds block-level weather advisories under the Gramin Krishi Mausam Sewa (GKMS). In 2011 ICAR made CRIDA the scientific lead institute for the National Innovations in Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA) mission — the flagship ICAR climate-adaptation programme.

Mandate and research programmes

CRIDA's mandate is organised around four programmatic families, each of which corresponds to a Division of the Institute:

Division of Resource Management: soil and water conservation research — watershed management, in-situ moisture conservation (ridge-and-furrow, broad-bed-and-furrow, deep ploughing, conservation tillage), farm ponds, check dams, contour bunding — and integrated nutrient management for rainfed soils. Long-term watershed experiments at Hayathnagar are among India's oldest continuously monitored micro-watershed datasets.
Division of Crop Sciences: rainfed cropping-systems research — sole and intercropping (pigeonpea + sorghum, castor + pigeonpea, groundnut + pigeonpea), drought-tolerant cultivar screening, kharif and rabi contingency crop identification, physiological research on drought and heat tolerance.
Division of Agricultural Systems and Climate Change: agrometeorology (AICRPAM node), climate-impact modelling (InfoCrop, DSSAT, APSIM-based), Vulnerability & Risk Assessment (VRA), livelihood-vulnerability mapping, and the technical anchor of the NICRA Strategic Research component.
Division of Transfer of Technology: the interface with the KVK / ATARI network — NICRA Technology Demonstration in Climate Resilient Villages, training of KVK Subject Matter Specialists, and District Agriculture Contingency Plan (DACP) authoring and revision.

NICRA — the flagship climate-resilience mission

The National Innovations in Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA) mission, launched by ICAR in February 2011 and led scientifically by CRIDA, is the largest climate-adaptation research programme in Indian agriculture. NICRA runs on three components:

Strategic Research (SR): long-term multi-institute research on climate impacts on crops, livestock, fisheries, natural resources and pests — sited at CRIDA and at ~40 partner ICAR institutes and SAUs. Outputs include the Indian Agricultural Vulnerability & Risk Assessment atlas, climate-impact simulations for major crops under RCP 4.5 / 8.5, and adaptation-technology inventories.
Technology Demonstration (TDC): the flagship Climate Resilient Village (CRV) field-demonstration programme, operationalised through Krishi Vigyan Kendras in 151 selected climatically vulnerable districts at launch (subsequently expanded), where a bundle of location-specific interventions is demonstrated: drought-tolerant cultivars, in-situ moisture conservation, custom hiring centres, agromet advisories, farm ponds, silvi-pastoral systems, backyard-poultry and small-ruminant enterprises, and community fodder banks.
Capacity Building & Sponsored / Competitive Research: training of researchers and extension officers, and a competitive grants window for climate-adaptation research.

NICRA outputs directly inform the National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA), the Rainfed Area Development (RAD) sub-mission and the Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana organic-cluster programme. For the standalone NICRA reference see /nicra.

District Agriculture Contingency Plans (DACPs)

The single most consequential CRIDA output for state agriculture departments and KVKs is the District Agriculture Contingency Plan (DACP) — a district-level playbook prepared by CRIDA in coordination with State Agricultural Universities, State Agriculture Departments and India Meteorological Department (IMD) agromet units. Each DACP covers:

District rainfall analysis (long-period average, coefficient of variation, dry-spell probability, drought years).
Kharif and rabi normal crop plan (with recommended cultivars).
Contingency crop plans for delayed monsoon onset (2-, 4-, 6- and 8-week delays), mid-season dry spells and terminal droughts.
Livestock, poultry and fisheries contingency measures.
Post-drought recovery packages.

DACPs cover 650+ Indian districtsand are the operational base document used when State Agriculture Departments issue kharif contingency advisories and when KVKs run Frontline Demonstrations in a dry year. The plans are periodically updated on crida.in and referenced in every monsoon-season NITI Aayog / DA&FW drought review.

Research farms — Hayathnagar and Gunegal

Hayathnagar Research Farm (HRF): located about 30 km south-east of Hyderabad on the Vijayawada highway, HRF is CRIDA's principal experimental farm. It hosts long-term micro-watershed experiments (some running continuously since the 1970s), long-term cropping-systems trials, agroforestry and agri-horti-silvi-pastoral experiments, and the CRIDA KVK — Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Ranga Reddy district, at Hayathnagar — which delivers CRIDA's farmer-facing outputs to Ranga Reddy district farmers.
Gunegal Research Farm: a semi-arid arid-zone livestock and small-ruminant research farm used for agri-silvi-pastoral integration, sheep and goat husbandry under dryland conditions, and native fodder-tree research.

AICRPDA and AICRPAM networks

CRIDA coordinates two of ICAR's largest coordinated research projects:

AICRPDA (25+ centres) — sited at State Agricultural Universities and ICAR institutes across India's major rainfed agro-ecological zones — Solapur, Bijapur, Anantapur, Bellary, Rajkot, Indore, Rewa, Rakh Dhiansar, Ballowal Saunkhri, Jhansi (Bundelkhand), Ranchi, Faizabad, Agra, Arjia (Bhilwara), Kovilpatti, S.K. Nagar, Vijayapura, Parbhani, Phulbani, Varanasi and more. Each centre runs the AICRPDA technical programme (cropping systems, cultivar screening, moisture conservation, agroforestry).
AICRPAM (25+ centres) — the agrometeorology network that generates crop-weather relationships, dynamic crop simulation calibration data and locally-tuned agromet advisories. AICRPAM outputs feed the block-level advisories delivered under the Gramin Krishi Mausam Sewa pipeline through IMD's DAMU (District Agromet Unit) network.

Publications, technologies and farmer-facing outputs

District Agriculture Contingency Plans (650+ districts) — the flagship extension document, periodically updated on crida.in.
Custom Hiring Centres (CHCs) — a technology-demonstration model in NICRA villages, where a KVK / village committee owns a fleet of implements (rotavators, seed drills, sprayers) for hire — reducing timely-sowing risk in short monsoon windows.
In-situ moisture-conservation packages — ridge-and-furrow, broad-bed-and-furrow, deep ploughing, contour bunding, tied-ridging — with district-specific recommendations.
Rainwater harvesting structures — farm ponds, check dams, percolation tanks — with design and siting protocols.
Cropping-systems packages — pigeonpea + sorghum, castor + pigeonpea, groundnut + pigeonpea and other rainfed intercropping systems that are staples of the peninsular dryland package-of-practice.
Agri-silvi-pastoral models — combining trees (subabul, drumstick, custard apple), crops and livestock — for degraded and marginal dryland farms.
Vulnerability & Risk Assessment atlas — district-level climate-vulnerability mapping used by state Departments and DA&FW for planning.

Where CRIDA sits in the ICAR / DA&FW ecosystem

CRIDA is one of ICAR's central research institutes under the Natural Resource Management and Crop Science divisions of DARE, and works alongside sister institutes on complementary mandates: ICAR-IIWM (Indian Institute of Water Management, Bhubaneswar) on watershed and irrigation research, ICAR-CAZRI (Central Arid Zone Research Institute, Jodhpur) on hot-arid Rajasthan zone research, ICAR-IISWC (Indian Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Dehradun) on soil-conservation engineering, ICAR-IIMR (Indian Institute of Millets Research, Hyderabad) on the millets varietal pipeline that feeds CRIDA rainfed cropping systems, and ICAR-NIASM (National Institute of Abiotic Stress Management, Baramati) on abiotic-stress physiology. In the extension chain, CRIDA connects through the eleven ATARIs to the 731+ KVKs in the district network; NICRA Climate Resilient Villages are KVK-anchored. On the varietal side, CRIDA-coordinated AICRPDA testing feeds into IARI-bred and SAU-bred rainfed cultivars, and the plant-protection layer draws on Integrated Pest Management packages from NIPHM and ICAR-NCIPM. On the mission-mode / scheme side, CRIDA outputs anchor NICRA, NMSA (including Rainfed Area Development), PMKSY's Per Drop More Crop and watershed sub-components, PKVY and NMNF organic / natural farming clusters, Soil Health Card, and the PMFBY crop-insurance risk-zoning maps.

How different stakeholders engage with CRIDA

Farmers and FPOs: access CRIDA-anchored technology through the district KVK network; NICRA-selected Climate Resilient Village KVKs demonstrate the bundle of adaptation interventions. KVK Ranga Reddy at Hayathnagar is CRIDA's own KVK for Ranga Reddy district farmers.
State Agriculture Departments: DACPs are the operational base document used during monsoon monitoring and for issuing kharif contingency advisories; state RAD (Rainfed Area Development) planning under NMSA draws directly on CRIDA cropping-system recommendations.
SAUs and ICAR institutes: participate in the AICRPDA / AICRPAM coordinated network — hosting AICRPDA centres, contributing cultivar entries, agromet observations and long-term trial data.
Research scholars: pursue M.Sc. / Ph.D. work at CRIDA in collaboration with recognised universities; apply for CRIDA fellowships, ICAR National Fellowships and NICRA competitive grants announced on crida.in and nicra-icar.in.
State extension officers: nominate for CRIDA / MANAGE / NIPHM short-courses on dryland farming, watershed management and climate-resilient agriculture.
National mission-mode programmes: NICRA, NMSA (RAD), PMKSY / Per Drop More Crop, PKVY, Soil Health Card and PMFBY — all lean on CRIDA science.
International researchers: collaborate with CRIDA through CGIAR partners such as ICRISAT (also headquartered near Hyderabad at Patancheru), the FAO Global Framework on Water Scarcity in Agriculture, and Consortium of International Agricultural Research bilateral programmes.

NICRA

National Innovations in Climate Resilient Agriculture — the flagship 2011 ICAR mission led scientifically by CRIDA.

IARI

ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi — the sister flagship ICAR institute; Pusa varieties enter the AICRPDA rainfed testing pipeline coordinated by CRIDA.

NIPHM

National Institute of Plant Health Management, Hyderabad — sister Hyderabad institute; trains extension officers on IPM for rainfed cropping systems that CRIDA researches.

ATARI

The eleven ICAR zonal institutes coordinating KVKs — the delivery channel through which NICRA Climate Resilient Village bundles reach farmers.

KVK Directory

District-wise Krishi Vigyan Kendras — the 731+ farm-science centres that operationalise CRIDA-anchored DACPs and NICRA CRV bundles.

GKMS

Gramin Krishi Mausam Sewa — block-level agromet advisory pipeline; AICRPAM (coordinated by CRIDA) is its scientific base.

NMSA

National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture — Rainfed Area Development (RAD) sub-mission planning draws on CRIDA cropping-system recommendations.

PMKSY

Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana — watershed and Per Drop More Crop components draw on CRIDA moisture-conservation research.

PMFBY

Crop insurance — district risk-zoning and drought definitions draw on CRIDA vulnerability atlases and rainfall-analysis outputs.

CAZRI

ICAR-Central Arid Zone Research Institute, Jodhpur — CRIDA's sister institute covering the hot Thar Desert and cold arid Ladakh zones; coordinates AICRPAF and NICRA arid-zone CRVs.

References

crida.in — CRIDA corporate portal: divisions, AICRPDA / AICRPAM coordination, DACP archive, annual reports, HRF and Gunegal research farm profiles, publications.
nicra-icar.in — NICRA programme portal: Strategic Research outputs, Climate Resilient Village district list, Technology Demonstration case studies.
icar.org.in — Indian Council of Agricultural Research portal.
agriwelfare.gov.in — Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, the parent Ministry.
imdagrimet.gov.in — IMD Agrimet division; AICRPAM (CRIDA-coordinated) feeds GKMS block-level advisories through the DAMU network.
Press Information Bureau (PIB) — releases on NICRA launches, DACP updates, CRIDA directorship and monsoon-season contingency reviews.

Frequently asked questions

What is CRIDA and when was it founded?: CRIDA — the Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture — is the Indian Council of Agricultural Research's nodal institute for rainfed and dryland agriculture, headquartered at Santoshnagar, Hyderabad 500059 in Telangana. It was formally established in 1985 by upgrading the Hyderabad centre of the All India Coordinated Research Project for Dryland Agriculture (AICRPDA), which had been running at the site since 1970. CRIDA reports to ICAR under the Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE), Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Government of India, and works to a mandate covering research on rainfed farming systems, in-situ soil-moisture conservation, drought-tolerant cropping, agrometeorology, watershed development and climate-resilient agriculture.
What is the difference between AICRPDA and NICRA — and how does CRIDA coordinate them?: AICRPDA (All India Coordinated Research Project for Dryland Agriculture), launched in 1970 with support from the Canadian International Development Agency and the World Bank, is India's multi-location varietal, agronomy and cropping-systems trial network for rainfed agriculture — running through 25+ collaborating centres in State Agricultural Universities and ICAR institutes across India's rainfed districts. AICRPAM (All India Coordinated Research Project on Agrometeorology) is the parallel network of 25+ agrometeorology centres feeding the Gramin Krishi Mausam Sewa (GKMS) block-level weather advisory pipeline. NICRA (National Innovations in Climate Resilient Agriculture) is the flagship ICAR climate-adaptation mission launched in 2011 and led scientifically by CRIDA — combining Strategic Research on climate impacts, Technology Demonstration in 151 Climate Resilient Villages (CRVs) across all districts, and Capacity Building of researchers and extension officers. CRIDA is the coordinating institute for all three.
What are District Agriculture Contingency Plans (DACPs)?: District Agriculture Contingency Plans, prepared by CRIDA in coordination with State Agricultural Universities and State Agriculture Departments, are district-level playbooks covering what to sow, when to sow, and what to do in the event of drought, delayed monsoon onset, mid-season dry spells or terminal droughts. They cover 650+ Indian districts, with each plan carrying district-specific rainfall analysis, kharif and rabi crop calendars, contingency crop and cultivar recommendations by rainfall scenario, and post-drought recovery packages. DACPs are the operational base document used by State Agriculture Departments and Krishi Vigyan Kendras when issuing kharif contingency advisories, and are periodically updated on crida.in.
How much of India's cropped area is rainfed and why does CRIDA matter?: Roughly 51% of India's net cropped area (around 96 million hectares of 141 Mha) is rainfed — the majority of coarse cereals (jowar, bajra, ragi, small millets), pulses (arhar, chickpea, moong, urad), oilseeds (groundnut, soybean, castor, sesamum), and cotton is grown under rainfed conditions in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Jharkhand, Gujarat and the Bundelkhand region. These rainfed farming systems are the most climate-vulnerable in India — subject to erratic monsoon onset, mid-season dry spells, terminal droughts, and increasing heat and rainfall variability. CRIDA is the ICAR nodal institute researching climate-resilient rainfed technologies (cropping systems, drought-tolerant cultivars, moisture conservation, watershed development, agroforestry, livestock integration, contingency planning) and translating them to farmer-facing packages through the KVK network.
What is the Climate Resilient Village (CRV) model under NICRA?: The Climate Resilient Village (CRV) is the field-demonstration unit of the NICRA Technology Demonstration Component (TDC), operationalised through Krishi Vigyan Kendras. Since NICRA's 2011 launch, one KVK-anchored CRV was established in each of 151 selected climatically vulnerable districts across India — later expanded — where a bundle of location-specific climate-adaptation interventions is demonstrated: drought-tolerant cultivars, in-situ moisture conservation (ridge-and-furrow, broad-bed-and-furrow, deep ploughing), farm ponds and check dams, custom hiring centres for timely-sowing implements, agrometeorological advisories, small-ruminant and backyard-poultry livelihood interventions, and community fodder banks. The CRV model is coordinated by CRIDA, run through the ATARI–KVK network, and periodically evaluated for its impact on kharif yields, incomes and resilience in a drought year.
Where is CRIDA and what research farms does it operate?: CRIDA's headquarters and main laboratories are on Santoshnagar Road, Hyderabad 500059 (Telangana). It operates two principal research farms — the Hayathnagar Research Farm (about 30 km south-east of Hyderabad, on the Vijayawada highway, hosting long-term watershed, cropping-systems and agroforestry experiments, and KVK Ranga Reddy) and the Gunegal Research Farm (used for arid-zone livestock, agri-silvi-pastoral and small-ruminant integration research). CRIDA scientists also operate the AICRPDA and AICRPAM coordinated networks and the NICRA Strategic Research platforms sited at collaborating ICAR / SAU centres nationwide.
How can farmers, FPOs and state officers access CRIDA outputs?: Farmers and Farmer Producer Organisations access CRIDA-anchored research through the KVK network (see /krishi-vigyan-kendras) — every district KVK works to the CRIDA-anchored DACP for kharif and rabi contingency advisories, and NICRA-selected KVKs demonstrate the Climate Resilient Village bundle. State Agriculture Departments and SAUs subscribe to CRIDA agromet bulletins, use DACPs during monsoon monitoring, and align state-level Rainfed Area Development (RAD) sub-mission plans with CRIDA recommendations. Research scholars can apply for M.Sc. / Ph.D. work at CRIDA in collaboration with recognised universities and for CRIDA fellowships and short-courses announced on crida.in. Extension officers can nominate for CRIDA / MANAGE / NIPHM short courses on dryland farming, watershed management and climate-resilient agriculture.

The 1970 AICRPDA founding, the 1985 CRIDA constitution, the 2011 NICRA launch, the AICRPAM coordination role, the DACP coverage of 650+ districts, the Climate Resilient Village model in 151 KVK districts and the Hayathnagar / Gunegal research farm mandates above draw on publicly available material on crida.in, nicra-icar.in, icar.org.in and PIB. Programme scope, district coverage and leadership rosters are periodically revised — confirm current notifications on crida.in before applying for training, fellowships or partnership programmes.