What is IIHR and when was it founded?

IIHR — the ICAR–Indian Institute of Horticultural Research — is the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)'s nodal institute for basic, strategic and applied research across the full horticulture sector: fruits, vegetables, flowers, medicinal and aromatic plants, mushrooms and post-harvest technology. It was established on 1 September 1967 at Bangalore under ICAR, and its headquarters shifted from the original Indian Institute of Horticulture site on Kanakapura Road to a purpose-developed 264-hectare campus at Hesaraghatta Lake Post, north-west of Bengaluru, in Karnataka. IIHR reports to ICAR under the Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE), Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Government of India.

Where is IIHR headquartered and what are its regional stations?

IIHR's main campus is at Hesaraghatta Lake Post, Bengaluru 560089, Karnataka — approximately 30 km north-west of central Bengaluru — spread over roughly 264 hectares of institutional land with orchards, vegetable blocks, floriculture polyhouses, seed processing and pilot post-harvest facilities. IIHR operates two Central Horticultural Experiment Stations (CHES) as regional research stations: CHES Chettalli in Kodagu district, Karnataka (focused on hill-zone horticulture — coffee-shade fruits, cardamom-belt spices, temperate-adaptation trials) and CHES Bhubaneswar in Odisha (focused on humid-tropical east-coast horticulture — mango, cashew, banana, vegetables under the east-coast agro-climatic zone).

What are the Arka varieties and why are they important?

The 'Arka' prefix is IIHR's institutional brand for varieties, hybrids and rootstocks released by the institute — a form of institutional traceability similar to how IARI uses the 'Pusa' prefix. IIHR has released 300+ Arka varieties and hybrids across fruits, vegetables and flowers since 1967. Flagship releases include Arka Rakshak (a triple-disease-resistant F1 tomato hybrid resistant to bacterial wilt, tomato leaf curl virus and early blight — one of India's most widely adopted vegetable hybrids), Arka Samrat and Arka Vikas (tomato), Arka Anamika (a widely cultivated okra variety with yellow-vein-mosaic-virus tolerance), Arka Kalyan (onion), Arka Poornima and Arka Neelamani (grapes), Arka Krishna (guava) and Arka Bhima (marigold). Arka seed and planting material is licensed to state horticulture departments, seed companies and FPOs and reaches farmers under the MIDH area-expansion component (see /midh) and NHB/CDB nursery accreditation.

What academic and training programmes does IIHR offer?

IIHR is not an ICAR Deemed University in its own right, but it hosts postgraduate research collaboration with the University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore (UAS-B) and the University of Horticultural Sciences, Bagalkot (UHS-B), with IIHR scientists serving as recognised research guides for M.Sc. and Ph.D. programmes across horticultural sciences. IIHR also runs the ICAR-IIHR Agri-Business Incubator (a knowledge partner of the ICAR-NAARM a-IDEA incubator network) that mentors horticulture start-ups on Arka technology commercialisation. Beyond degree work, IIHR runs national short-courses (Winter Schools, Summer Schools, CAFT programmes) for scientists and state-department officers, and Farmers FIRST / farmer-training programmes for FPOs and progressive growers around Bengaluru and at CHES Chettalli / CHES Bhubaneswar.

What All-India Coordinated projects does IIHR coordinate?

IIHR is the lead ICAR coordinating institute for four major All-India Coordinated Research Projects (AICRPs) in horticulture: AICRP on Fruits, AICRP on Vegetable Crops, AICRP on Floriculture and AICRP on Medicinal, Aromatic Plants & Betelvine (MAP&B). These AICRPs run multi-location varietal evaluation and agronomy trials across State Agricultural Universities and ICAR sister institutes, and are the pipeline through which IIHR Arka varieties are tested in different agro-climatic zones before recommendation and release. Elite varieties released through this pipeline enter the seed / planting-material supply chain of the state horticulture departments, NHB-accredited nurseries and the MIDH area-expansion component.

What is the difference between IIHR, NHB, NBHM and MIDH?

The four are complementary institutions with distinct mandates in India's horticulture ecosystem. IIHR (Bengaluru) is the ICAR central research institute — the R&D pipeline that develops horticultural varieties, agronomy packages and post-harvest technologies. NHB — the National Horticulture Board (Gurugram), a sub-scheme of MIDH — provides back-ended capital subsidy for commercial horticulture units, cold chain and nurseries (see /nhb). NBHM — the National Beekeeping & Honey Mission — is the sub-mission on scientific beekeeping under Atmanirbhar Bharat (see /nbhm). MIDH — the Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (see /midh) — is the umbrella Centrally Sponsored Scheme that absorbs NHM, HMNEH, NHB, CDB and CIH and provides the delivery envelope for state horticulture missions. IIHR's varieties and technologies feed into the state-level MIDH delivery under NHB/CDB/CIH channels.

What post-harvest and agri-business work has come out of IIHR?

IIHR's Division of Post-Harvest Technology and Agricultural Engineering has developed and standardised process technologies for a wide range of horticultural products — including Arka Fruit Zyme (a fruit-set enhancer), Arka Microbial Consortium (a plant-growth-promoting biofertiliser), Arka Vegetable Special (foliar nutrient formulation), Arka Sabala (fruit-fly management lure), pomegranate anardana processing, mango pulp preservation, jamun juice concentration, moringa leaf-powder standardisation, banana ripening protocols, and modified-atmosphere packaging for high-value vegetables. Many of these technologies are commercialised through IIHR's Institute Technology Management Unit (ITMU) and the ICAR-IIHR Agri-Business Incubator, which has incubated horticulture start-ups on Arka biopesticides, biofertilisers and processed products.

How can farmers and FPOs benefit from IIHR's work?

Farmers and FPOs benefit from IIHR mainly through three channels. First, seed and planting material: Arka varieties are licensed to state horticulture departments, NHB-accredited nurseries, empanelled seed companies and FPOs, and reach farmers under MIDH area-expansion sub-schemes. Second, bio-inputs and packages: Arka Microbial Consortium, Arka Fruit Zyme, IPM lures and IIHR-standardised agronomy packages are supplied through state extension systems, KVKs and the ICAR-IIHR ATIC (Agricultural Technology Information Centre) on campus. Third, training and advisory: IIHR runs farmer training, on-campus demonstrations and — through KVKs coordinated by ICAR-ATARI Zone XI at Bengaluru (see /atari and /krishi-vigyan-kendras) — extends technology to district-level growers. FPOs specifically engage IIHR through the Agri-Business Incubator and through NHB-linked cluster programmes.

What is CHES Chettalli and CHES Bhubaneswar?

The Central Horticultural Experiment Stations (CHES) are IIHR's two off-campus research stations that extend Arka-line varietal and agronomy research to distinct agro-climatic zones. CHES Chettalli sits in Kodagu district, Karnataka — the coffee-cardamom hill belt of the Western Ghats — and focuses on hill-zone horticulture: coffee-shade fruit trees, temperate fruits under sub-tropical adaptation, cardamom-belt spices, and orange / mandarin variety-testing under the humid mid-elevation regime. CHES Bhubaneswar sits in Odisha and focuses on the east-coast humid-tropical zone: mango and cashew for coastal Odisha, banana for the Mahanadi delta, and vegetables adapted to high-rainfall east-coast conditions. Both stations run local Arka trials and feed data back into the AICRP-Fruits / AICRP-Vegetables pipelines coordinated from Bengaluru HQ.

IIHR — ICAR–Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, Hesaraghatta, Bengaluru: India's Nodal ICAR Institute for Fruits, Vegetables, Flowers and Post-Harvest Horticulture, and Home of the Arka Varieties

The ICAR–Indian Institute of Horticultural Research (IIHR), headquartered at Hesaraghatta Lake Post, Bengaluru 560089, Karnataka, is the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)'s nodal institute for basic, strategic and applied research across the full horticulture sector — fruits, vegetables, flowers, medicinal and aromatic plants, mushrooms and post-harvest technology. IIHR was established on 1 September 1967 at Bangalore under ICAR, and its main campus later shifted to the purpose-developed 264-hectare campus at Hesaraghatta — approximately 30 km north-west of central Bengaluru. IIHR reports to ICAR under the Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE)of the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, and is the R&D pipeline that feeds horticultural varieties, agronomy packages and post-harvest technologies into the state horticulture departments and Central-scheme delivery of the Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH), the National Horticulture Board (NHB) and the National Beekeeping & Honey Mission (NBHM).

At a glance

Body type: Central research institute of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR).
Founded: 1 September 1967 at Bangalore under ICAR.
Headquarters: Hesaraghatta Lake Post, Bengaluru 560089, Karnataka (approximately 30 km north-west of central Bengaluru).
Campus scale: approximately 264 hectares at Hesaraghatta HQ, with orchards, vegetable and floriculture blocks, seed-processing facilities and a pilot post-harvest plant.
Regional stations: Central Horticultural Experiment Station (CHES), Chettalli (Kodagu, Karnataka) — hill-zone horticulture; CHES, Bhubaneswar (Odisha) — east-coast humid-tropical horticulture.
Parent ministry: Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Government of India (via DARE / ICAR).
Mandate: basic, strategic and applied research across fruits, vegetables, flowers, medicinal and aromatic plants, mushrooms and post-harvest technology; varietal improvement, agronomy, plant protection, post-harvest engineering, biofertilisers, biopesticides and horticulture-sector human resource development.
Flagship varieties: the Arka series — Arka Rakshak, Arka Samrat, Arka Vikas (tomato); Arka Anamika (okra); Arka Kalyan (onion); Arka Poornima, Arka Neelamani (grape); Arka Krishna (guava); Arka Bhima (marigold); plus 300+ other releases.
Coordinates: AICRP-Fruits, AICRP-Vegetable Crops, AICRP-Floriculture and AICRP-Medicinal, Aromatic Plants & Betelvine (MAP&B).
Incubator: ICAR-IIHR Agri-Business Incubator (ABI) — commercialisation of Arka technologies to horticulture start-ups.
Publications: Journal of Horticultural Sciences; IIHR Annual Report; technical bulletins and Arka variety catalogue.
Website: iihr.res.in.

Origins — 1967 founding and the Hesaraghatta campus

IIHR was established on 1 September 1967 at Bangalore, initially housed at the erstwhile Indian Institute of Horticulture site on the Kanakapura Road side of the city. As the ICAR reorganisation of the late 1960s progressed and horticultural research emerged as a distinct national priority — separate from general crop research — IIHR was given a purpose-developed campus of approximately 264 hectares at Hesaraghatta, on the north-western fringe of Bengaluru near Hesaraghatta Lake. The Hesaraghatta campus today houses the ten research divisions, the germplasm blocks, orchards, polyhouses for floriculture and protected-cultivation vegetables, the seed-processing complex, the pilot post-harvest plant, the Agricultural Technology Information Centre (ATIC) and the ICAR-IIHR Agri-Business Incubator.

Regional stations — CHES Chettalli and CHES Bhubaneswar

IIHR operates two Central Horticultural Experiment Stations that extend Arka-line varietal and agronomy research to distinct agro-climatic zones distant from Bengaluru:

CHES Chettalli — Kodagu district, Karnataka — situated in the coffee-cardamom hill belt of the Western Ghats; focuses on hill-zone horticulture, coffee-shade fruit trees, temperate fruits under sub-tropical adaptation, cardamom-belt spices and mandarin / orange variety testing under the humid mid-elevation regime.
CHES Bhubaneswar — Khordha district, Odisha — focuses on east-coast humid-tropical horticulture: mango and cashew for coastal Odisha, banana for the Mahanadi delta, vegetables adapted to high-rainfall east-coast conditions, and local runs of AICRP-Vegetables trials for the east-coast agro-climatic zone.

Mandate and research divisions

IIHR's mandate covers the horticulture value chain — from genetic resources to the post-harvest plate — and is organised across ten research divisions and sections:

Division of Fruit Crops — mango, banana, citrus, guava, papaya, pomegranate, grape and minor fruits; varietal development, rootstock evaluation and canopy management.
Division of Vegetable Crops — tomato, okra, chilli, onion, brinjal, cucurbits, leafy vegetables; F1 hybrid development and disease-resistance breeding (the base division for Arka Rakshak, Arka Anamika, Arka Kalyan).
Division of Flower and Medicinal Crops — rose, marigold, chrysanthemum, gerbera, gladiolus, orchids and medicinal / aromatic plants; hosts the AICRP-Floriculture and AICRP-MAP&B coordination.
Division of Plant Genetic Resources — germplasm collection, characterisation and conservation for horticultural crops; the horticulture-side complement to the national gene-bank at NBPGR.
Division of Plant Pathology — fungal, bacterial and viral disease research; the base for triple-disease-resistance breeding used in Arka Rakshak tomato.
Division of Entomology and Nematology — horticultural-crop pest management, biological control, fruit-fly IPM (Arka Sabala lure) and nematode management.
Division of Post-Harvest Technology and Agricultural Engineering — process technologies, packaging, cold-chain, mango pulp, jamun juice, moringa leaf powder, MAP for high-value vegetables and irrigation / precision engineering.
Division of Basic Sciences — biotechnology, biochemistry, molecular breeding.
Division of Social Sciences — horticulture economics, extension, adoption studies and Farmers FIRST work.
Section of Economics and Statistics — market intelligence, experimental design and horticulture-sector statistics.

The Arka series — flagship IIHR varieties

The "Arka"prefix is IIHR's institutional brand for varieties, hybrids and rootstocks released by the institute — a form of institutional traceability similar to IARI's Pusa prefix. IIHR has released 300+ Arka varieties and hybrids across fruits, vegetables, flowers and medicinal plants since 1967. The most-cited flagship releases include:

Arka Rakshak — an F1 tomato hybrid released by IIHR with triple disease resistanceagainst bacterial wilt, tomato leaf curl virus (ToLCV) and early blight — one of India's most widely adopted vegetable hybrids in the last decade and a mainstay of protected-cultivation and open-field tomato in South and Central India.
Arka Samrat and Arka Vikas — widely adopted tomato varieties / hybrids for the open-field fresh-market segment.
Arka Anamika — an okra variety with tolerance to Yellow Vein Mosaic Virus (YVMV), extensively grown across South and West India.
Arka Kalyan — a red-onion variety adapted to Karnataka and adjoining onion-growing zones.
Arka Poornima and Arka Neelamani — table and wine grape releases from IIHR's grape programme.
Arka Krishna — a pink-fleshed guava with high lycopene, released by the Division of Fruit Crops.
Arka Bhima — a marigold release from the Division of Flower and Medicinal Crops for the loose-flower market.

Arka seed and planting material is licensed to state horticulture departments, NHB-accredited nurseries, empanelled private seed companies and Farmer Producer Organisations, and reaches farmers under the area-expansion component of MIDH. IIHR's Institute Technology Management Unit (ITMU) administers non-exclusive and exclusive licences on Arka technologies.

Bio-inputs and post-harvest technologies

Beyond varieties, IIHR's Division of Post-Harvest Technology, Division of Entomology and Division of Plant Pathology have developed a portfolio of horticulture-specific bio-inputs and formulations that are commercialised through licensees:

Arka Fruit Zyme — a fruit-set and yield enhancer for horticultural crops.
Arka Microbial Consortium (AMC) — a plant-growth-promoting microbial biofertiliser formulation.
Arka Vegetable Special — a foliar nutrient formulation for vegetables.
Arka Sabala — a fruit-fly management lure for mango and cucurbit orchards.
Mango pulp preservation, jamun juice concentration, moringa leaf-powder standardisation and MAP for high-value vegetables — commercialised through licensed processors.

All-India Coordination — AICRPs in horticulture

IIHR is the lead ICAR coordinating institute for four of the major horticultural All-India Coordinated Research Projects, which run multi-location varietal evaluation and agronomy trials across State Agricultural Universities and sister ICAR institutes:

AICRP on Fruits — multi-zonal evaluation of mango, banana, citrus, guava, papaya, pomegranate, grape and minor fruits.
AICRP on Vegetable Crops — multi-zonal evaluation of tomato, okra, chilli, onion, brinjal, cucurbits and leafy vegetables; the pipeline through which Arka Rakshak / Arka Anamika style hybrids are validated.
AICRP on Floriculture — rose, marigold, chrysanthemum, gladiolus, orchids and other cut / loose flowers.
AICRP on Medicinal, Aromatic Plants & Betelvine (MAP&B) — Ashwagandha, isabgol, senna, palmarosa, lemongrass, betelvine and other MAPs.

ICAR-IIHR Agri-Business Incubator and technology transfer

The ICAR-IIHR Agri-Business Incubator (ABI)is IIHR's technology-commercialisation and start-up-mentoring arm, part of the wider ICAR incubator network anchored by MANAGE Hyderabadand ICAR-NAARM's a-IDEA. The IIHR ABI incubates horticulture start-ups on Arka biopesticide and biofertiliser production, Arka seed multiplication, post-harvest micro-enterprises and floriculture value-addition. On the wider technology-transfer front, IIHR's Agricultural Technology Information Centre (ATIC) on the Hesaraghatta campus operates as a single-window facility for farmers, extension officers, private nurseries and seed companies to purchase Arka seed / planting material and licensed bio-inputs, and to obtain the current Arka variety catalogue.

IIHR in India's wider horticulture ecosystem

IIHR is one node in a tightly interconnected ecosystem of institutions that together support India's horticulture sector — the world's second-largest producer of fruits and vegetables. Understanding IIHR in relation to the others is essential:

MIDH — Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture:the umbrella Centrally Sponsored Scheme (2014-15) that subsumes NHM, HMNEH, NHB, CDB and CIH. IIHR-developed Arka varieties, bio-inputs and packages are the R&D input that flows into the MIDH area-expansion and protected-cultivation delivery.
NHB — National Horticulture Board (Gurugram): the MIDH sub-scheme providing back-ended capital subsidy for commercial horticulture units, cold-chain, controlled-atmosphere storage and nursery accreditation. NHB-accredited nurseries multiply and distribute IIHR-released Arka planting material.
NBHM — National Beekeeping & Honey Mission:the sub-mission on scientific beekeeping; IIHR's Entomology division contributes pollinator research (pollination biology for horticultural crops) that underpins NBHM's pollinator-supported horticulture agenda.
Sister ICAR institutes:alongside IIHR, India's horticulture R&D portfolio includes ICAR-CISH (Central Institute for Subtropical Horticulture, Lucknow), ICAR-CITH (Central Institute of Temperate Horticulture, Srinagar), ICAR-IIVR (Indian Institute of Vegetable Research, Varanasi), ICAR-DOGR (Directorate of Onion and Garlic Research, Pune), ICAR-NRC-Grapes (Pune), ICAR-NRC-Banana (Trichy) and ICAR-NRC-Pomegranate(Solapur). IIHR is the largest and the coordinating apex for AICRP-Fruits, AICRP-Vegetables, AICRP-Floriculture and AICRP-MAP&B.
Sister ICAR Deemed Universities: for the crop side, see the flagship ICAR-IARI New Delhi; for dryland and climate-resilient agriculture see ICAR-CRIDA Hyderabad; for dairy see ICAR-NDRI Karnal; for the eleven zonal-coordination institutes that push IIHR technology to district KVKs, see ICAR-ATARI and Krishi Vigyan Kendras.
APEDA and MPEDA: the export promotion authorities for horticultural produce (fresh grapes, mango, pomegranate) that operationalise IIHR post-harvest and residue-management protocols in the export-quality pipeline.

How different stakeholders engage with IIHR

Horticulture farmers and FPOs: obtain Arka seed and planting material through state horticulture departments, NHB-accredited nurseries and the IIHR ATIC on the Hesaraghatta campus; attend IIHR farmer training and demonstrations; and access technology through district KVKs coordinated by ICAR-ATARI Zone XI (Bengaluru).
State Horticulture Departments and Horticulture Universities:collaborate on AICRP-Fruits, AICRP-Vegetables, AICRP-Floriculture and AICRP-MAP&B multi-location trials; adopt IIHR-released varieties through the state seed / planting-material chain; and depute officers to IIHR's Winter / Summer / CAFT short-courses.
Private seed companies and nurseries:license Arka varieties from IIHR's Institute Technology Management Unit (ITMU) on non-exclusive or exclusive terms; multiply planting material under NHB accreditation; and supply the protected-cultivation and open-field vegetable segments.
Horticulture start-ups: apply to the ICAR-IIHR Agri-Business Incubator for mentoring and technology transfer on Arka bio-inputs, Arka processed products and floriculture value addition; also engage the wider ICAR agri-startup ecosystem via MANAGE Hyderabad.
Central schemes: IIHR technologies enter Central delivery through MIDH, NHB and NBHM; on the marketing / export side, through APEDA and Operation Greens (tomato-onion-potato value-chain support).

MIDH

Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture — umbrella Centrally Sponsored Scheme; the delivery envelope for IIHR-developed varieties and packages at the state level.

NHB

National Horticulture Board — back-ended capital subsidy for commercial horticulture units, cold chains and nurseries; NHB-accredited nurseries multiply IIHR Arka planting material.

NBHM

National Beekeeping & Honey Mission — sub-mission on scientific beekeeping; IIHR entomology contributes pollinator research for horticultural crops.

IARI

ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Pusa, New Delhi — sister ICAR flagship for the crop sciences and the Pusa variety brand; IIHR is the horticulture counterpart.

CRIDA

ICAR-Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture, Hyderabad — sister ICAR central institute for rainfed / dryland systems that interlock with IIHR horticulture research on hardy fruits and vegetables.

NDRI

ICAR-National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal — sister ICAR Deemed University for dairy sciences; IIHR is the horticulture-sciences counterpart at Bengaluru.

ATARI

The eleven ICAR zonal institutes coordinating KVKs — including ATARI Zone XI (Bengaluru) that pushes IIHR technology to district KVKs across South India.

APEDA

Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority — operationalises IIHR post-harvest and residue-management protocols in the horticulture export pipeline.

Operation Greens

Tomato-Onion-Potato value-chain scheme — leans on IIHR-developed varieties (Arka Rakshak, Arka Kalyan) and post-harvest packages for TOP-crop stabilisation.

Universities & Research Institutes

Full directory of Indian SAUs, ICAR institutes and horticultural universities.

References

iihr.res.in — ICAR-IIHR corporate portal: divisions, Arka variety catalogue, CHES Chettalli and CHES Bhubaneswar, ITMU / ABI / ATIC contacts, annual reports and IIHR history from 1967 onwards.
icar.org.in — Indian Council of Agricultural Research portal — parent institution of IIHR and coordinator of the AICRP system.
midh.gov.in — Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture — Central-scheme delivery envelope for IIHR-released varieties and packages via the state horticulture departments.
nhb.gov.in — National Horticulture Board — capital subsidy, cold chain and nursery accreditation window for commercial units multiplying IIHR planting material.
Press Information Bureau (PIB) — releases on Arka variety notifications, IIHR technology licensing and IIHR-anchored horticulture start-up incubation.

Frequently asked questions

What is IIHR and when was it founded?: IIHR — the ICAR–Indian Institute of Horticultural Research — is the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)'s nodal institute for basic, strategic and applied research across the full horticulture sector: fruits, vegetables, flowers, medicinal and aromatic plants, mushrooms and post-harvest technology. It was established on 1 September 1967 at Bangalore under ICAR, and its headquarters shifted from the original Indian Institute of Horticulture site on Kanakapura Road to a purpose-developed 264-hectare campus at Hesaraghatta Lake Post, north-west of Bengaluru, in Karnataka. IIHR reports to ICAR under the Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE), Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Government of India.
Where is IIHR headquartered and what are its regional stations?: IIHR's main campus is at Hesaraghatta Lake Post, Bengaluru 560089, Karnataka — approximately 30 km north-west of central Bengaluru — spread over roughly 264 hectares of institutional land with orchards, vegetable blocks, floriculture polyhouses, seed processing and pilot post-harvest facilities. IIHR operates two Central Horticultural Experiment Stations (CHES) as regional research stations: CHES Chettalli in Kodagu district, Karnataka (focused on hill-zone horticulture — coffee-shade fruits, cardamom-belt spices, temperate-adaptation trials) and CHES Bhubaneswar in Odisha (focused on humid-tropical east-coast horticulture — mango, cashew, banana, vegetables under the east-coast agro-climatic zone).
What are the Arka varieties and why are they important?: The 'Arka' prefix is IIHR's institutional brand for varieties, hybrids and rootstocks released by the institute — a form of institutional traceability similar to how IARI uses the 'Pusa' prefix. IIHR has released 300+ Arka varieties and hybrids across fruits, vegetables and flowers since 1967. Flagship releases include Arka Rakshak (a triple-disease-resistant F1 tomato hybrid resistant to bacterial wilt, tomato leaf curl virus and early blight — one of India's most widely adopted vegetable hybrids), Arka Samrat and Arka Vikas (tomato), Arka Anamika (a widely cultivated okra variety with yellow-vein-mosaic-virus tolerance), Arka Kalyan (onion), Arka Poornima and Arka Neelamani (grapes), Arka Krishna (guava) and Arka Bhima (marigold). Arka seed and planting material is licensed to state horticulture departments, seed companies and FPOs and reaches farmers under the MIDH area-expansion component (see /midh) and NHB/CDB nursery accreditation.
What academic and training programmes does IIHR offer?: IIHR is not an ICAR Deemed University in its own right, but it hosts postgraduate research collaboration with the University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore (UAS-B) and the University of Horticultural Sciences, Bagalkot (UHS-B), with IIHR scientists serving as recognised research guides for M.Sc. and Ph.D. programmes across horticultural sciences. IIHR also runs the ICAR-IIHR Agri-Business Incubator (a knowledge partner of the ICAR-NAARM a-IDEA incubator network) that mentors horticulture start-ups on Arka technology commercialisation. Beyond degree work, IIHR runs national short-courses (Winter Schools, Summer Schools, CAFT programmes) for scientists and state-department officers, and Farmers FIRST / farmer-training programmes for FPOs and progressive growers around Bengaluru and at CHES Chettalli / CHES Bhubaneswar.
What All-India Coordinated projects does IIHR coordinate?: IIHR is the lead ICAR coordinating institute for four major All-India Coordinated Research Projects (AICRPs) in horticulture: AICRP on Fruits, AICRP on Vegetable Crops, AICRP on Floriculture and AICRP on Medicinal, Aromatic Plants & Betelvine (MAP&B). These AICRPs run multi-location varietal evaluation and agronomy trials across State Agricultural Universities and ICAR sister institutes, and are the pipeline through which IIHR Arka varieties are tested in different agro-climatic zones before recommendation and release. Elite varieties released through this pipeline enter the seed / planting-material supply chain of the state horticulture departments, NHB-accredited nurseries and the MIDH area-expansion component.
What is the difference between IIHR, NHB, NBHM and MIDH?: The four are complementary institutions with distinct mandates in India's horticulture ecosystem. IIHR (Bengaluru) is the ICAR central research institute — the R&D pipeline that develops horticultural varieties, agronomy packages and post-harvest technologies. NHB — the National Horticulture Board (Gurugram), a sub-scheme of MIDH — provides back-ended capital subsidy for commercial horticulture units, cold chain and nurseries (see /nhb). NBHM — the National Beekeeping & Honey Mission — is the sub-mission on scientific beekeeping under Atmanirbhar Bharat (see /nbhm). MIDH — the Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (see /midh) — is the umbrella Centrally Sponsored Scheme that absorbs NHM, HMNEH, NHB, CDB and CIH and provides the delivery envelope for state horticulture missions. IIHR's varieties and technologies feed into the state-level MIDH delivery under NHB/CDB/CIH channels.
What post-harvest and agri-business work has come out of IIHR?: IIHR's Division of Post-Harvest Technology and Agricultural Engineering has developed and standardised process technologies for a wide range of horticultural products — including Arka Fruit Zyme (a fruit-set enhancer), Arka Microbial Consortium (a plant-growth-promoting biofertiliser), Arka Vegetable Special (foliar nutrient formulation), Arka Sabala (fruit-fly management lure), pomegranate anardana processing, mango pulp preservation, jamun juice concentration, moringa leaf-powder standardisation, banana ripening protocols, and modified-atmosphere packaging for high-value vegetables. Many of these technologies are commercialised through IIHR's Institute Technology Management Unit (ITMU) and the ICAR-IIHR Agri-Business Incubator, which has incubated horticulture start-ups on Arka biopesticides, biofertilisers and processed products.
How can farmers and FPOs benefit from IIHR's work?: Farmers and FPOs benefit from IIHR mainly through three channels. First, seed and planting material: Arka varieties are licensed to state horticulture departments, NHB-accredited nurseries, empanelled seed companies and FPOs, and reach farmers under MIDH area-expansion sub-schemes. Second, bio-inputs and packages: Arka Microbial Consortium, Arka Fruit Zyme, IPM lures and IIHR-standardised agronomy packages are supplied through state extension systems, KVKs and the ICAR-IIHR ATIC (Agricultural Technology Information Centre) on campus. Third, training and advisory: IIHR runs farmer training, on-campus demonstrations and — through KVKs coordinated by ICAR-ATARI Zone XI at Bengaluru (see /atari and /krishi-vigyan-kendras) — extends technology to district-level growers. FPOs specifically engage IIHR through the Agri-Business Incubator and through NHB-linked cluster programmes.
What is CHES Chettalli and CHES Bhubaneswar?: The Central Horticultural Experiment Stations (CHES) are IIHR's two off-campus research stations that extend Arka-line varietal and agronomy research to distinct agro-climatic zones. CHES Chettalli sits in Kodagu district, Karnataka — the coffee-cardamom hill belt of the Western Ghats — and focuses on hill-zone horticulture: coffee-shade fruit trees, temperate fruits under sub-tropical adaptation, cardamom-belt spices, and orange / mandarin variety-testing under the humid mid-elevation regime. CHES Bhubaneswar sits in Odisha and focuses on the east-coast humid-tropical zone: mango and cashew for coastal Odisha, banana for the Mahanadi delta, and vegetables adapted to high-rainfall east-coast conditions. Both stations run local Arka trials and feed data back into the AICRP-Fruits / AICRP-Vegetables pipelines coordinated from Bengaluru HQ.

The 1 September 1967 founding date, the 264-hectare Hesaraghatta campus, the ten-division research structure, the CHES Chettalli (Karnataka) and CHES Bhubaneswar (Odisha) regional stations, the Arka variety releases (Arka Rakshak, Arka Samrat, Arka Vikas, Arka Anamika, Arka Kalyan, Arka Poornima, Arka Neelamani, Arka Krishna, Arka Bhima and 300+ others), the AICRP-Fruits / AICRP-Vegetables / AICRP-Floriculture / AICRP-MAP&B coordination role and the ICAR-IIHR Agri-Business Incubator references above draw on publicly available material on iihr.res.in, icar.org.in, midh.gov.in and PIB releases. Divisional structure, current Arka variety rosters and licensing terms are periodically revised — confirm current details on iihr.res.in before licensing, admission or planting-material orders.