What is IIMR and when was it founded?

IIMR — the ICAR–Indian Institute of Millets Research — is India's nodal Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) institute for research on sorghum (jowar) and small millets (kodo, kutki, foxtail, barnyard, proso), headquartered at Rajendranagar, Hyderabad 500030, Telangana. Its lineage runs from the All India Coordinated Research Project on Sorghum (AICRP-Sorghum), which was formally launched in 1969 under the ICAR system to coordinate national sorghum improvement, through the establishment of the Directorate of Sorghum Research (DSR) at Rajendranagar in 1987, and finally the upgradation and rechristening as the Indian Institute of Millets Research (IIMR) by ICAR on 28 May 2014, with the expanded mandate covering all millets — sorghum, pearl millet, finger millet and small millets. IIMR reports to ICAR under the Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE), Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Government of India.

Where is IIMR located and what are its regional stations?

IIMR's headquarters is a dedicated ICAR campus at Rajendranagar, Hyderabad 500030, Telangana — the same Rajendranagar Agricultural Research campus that hosts the Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University (PJTSAU) and several other ICAR institutes. To cover India's diverse millet-growing agro-climatic zones, IIMR operates a Regional Station at Solapur, Maharashtra (which hosts the AICRP on Sorghum coordination for post-rainy / rabi sorghum — Solapur is at the heart of India's rabi jowar tract), and a Regional Station at Warangal, Telangana. As the lead centre for the AICRP on Sorghum and the AICRP on Small Millets, IIMR further coordinates a national network of about 20+ AICRP-Sorghum centres and about 15 AICRP-Small Millets centres located at State Agricultural Universities and ICAR institutes across sorghum, ragi, kodo, kutki, foxtail, barnyard and proso growing states — from Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Maharashtra to Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Uttarakhand and the North-East.

What is IIMR's research mandate?

IIMR's mandate covers basic, strategic and applied research on the entire millets crop group of India: (a) genetic improvement, varietal development and hybrid development of sorghum (kharif and rabi grain sorghum, sweet sorghum, forage sorghum) and of small millets (finger millet / ragi, kodo millet, little millet / kutki, foxtail millet, barnyard millet, proso millet); (b) pearl millet / bajra basic research and coordination through AICRP mechanisms in partnership with ICAR-AICRP centres and state agricultural universities; (c) crop production, protection and management packages tailored to rainfed and marginal-land conditions where millets are grown; (d) post-harvest processing, primary and secondary value-addition — dehulling, milling, grading, ready-to-cook and ready-to-eat products; (e) socio-economics, market linkage and demand generation for millets; (f) millets-based technology commercialisation via the NUTRIHUB incubator; (g) capacity-building and technology transfer through KVKs, state departments and the AICRP network. IIMR is the ICAR lead centre for the AICRP on Sorghum and the AICRP on Small Millets.

What is NUTRIHUB and how does it support millet startups?

NUTRIHUB is the Technology Business Incubator (TBI) hosted by IIMR at Rajendranagar, Hyderabad — India's first TBI dedicated to nutri-cereals and millets-based agri-food startups. It was set up with support from the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) under the ASPIRE (A Scheme for Promotion of Innovation, Rural Industry and Entrepreneurship) Livelihood Business Incubator (LBI) framework, and further scaled with the Department of Biotechnology's DBT-BIRAC Bio-Nest and BIG (Biotechnology Ignition Grant) support, and with contributions from the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY-RAFTAAR) Agri-Business Incubator programme. NUTRIHUB provides millet startups end-to-end incubation: (a) mentoring, business model canvas support and market linkage; (b) grants and equity-free seed funding through RKVY-RAFTAAR, DBT-BIRAC BIG and the ASPIRE window; (c) shared access to IIMR's Post-Harvest Processing Centre — dehullers, mini-mill lines, extrusion cooking, pilot bakery, RTC / RTE product development; (d) recipe-standardisation and shelf-life testing; (e) FSSAI and IPR facilitation; (f) demo runs at IIMR Millet Trade Meets and buyer-seller connect events. NUTRIHUB has incubated well over 100 millet-based startups since inception, spanning ragi flour, jowar rotis, foxtail-millet noodles, barnyard-millet upma mixes, proso-millet snacks, kodo-millet dosa mixes, millet-based baby food, millet beverages and millet health foods.

What is India's Shree Anna narrative and how does IIMR anchor it?

'Shree Anna' (also spelt Sri Anna — literally 'the honoured grain') is the Government of India's branding for millets adopted in the Union Budget 2023-24, in the wake of the United Nations declaring 2023 as the International Year of Millets (IYM-2023) on India's proposal. In the Budget 2023-24, the Finance Minister named IIMR Hyderabad as the Centre of Excellence for sharing best practices, research and technologies on Shree Anna at the international level, positioning IIMR as the global knowledge hub for millets. Under the Shree Anna narrative, the Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare has scaled the NFSM Sub-Mission on Nutri-Cereals — the millets sub-component of the National Food Security Mission — with expanded coverage of jowar, bajra, ragi and small millets districts, increased seed minikits, cluster front-line demonstrations, custom-hiring centres for millet-specific implements, post-harvest millet processing units, brand-building support (through APEDA and NAFED), millet-based mid-day meal and ICDS pilots, and millet-based ready-to-cook exports. IIMR provides the varietal pipeline, the post-harvest processing recipes and standards, and the NUTRIHUB startup pipeline that give the Shree Anna narrative operational substance.

What are IIMR's major sorghum and millet variety releases?

Under the AICRP on Sorghum and the AICRP on Small Millets, IIMR has, together with partner State Agricultural Universities, developed and released hundreds of improved sorghum and millet varieties and hybrids across India. Landmark and widely grown categories include: (a) kharif grain sorghum hybrids such as CSH series (CSH 1 through the CSH 40+ series developed over decades — early hybrids like CSH 5 and CSH 9 transformed sorghum yields in the 1970s-80s) and public-sector varieties (CSV series such as CSV 15, CSV 17, CSV 20, CSV 27); (b) rabi (post-rainy) sorghum varieties adapted to residual moisture conditions of Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, developed through the Solapur regional coordination; (c) sweet sorghum lines (e.g. CSH 22SS, CSV 24SS) for biofuel and syrup end-uses; (d) forage sorghum hybrids (CSH-13R, CSH-20MF) and multi-cut varieties for the dairy belt; (e) biofortified sorghum varieties enriched with iron and zinc — a HarvestPlus-aligned biofortification line (e.g. ICSR 14001, biofortified sorghum released under ICAR biofortification guidelines); (f) finger millet (ragi) varieties suited to Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand and Odisha rainfed conditions; (g) foxtail-millet, barnyard-millet, kodo, kutki and proso improved lines aligned with the AICRP on Small Millets. The full and current list of notified varieties is maintained on millets.res.in.

What is IIMR's Post-Harvest Processing Centre and why does it matter?

IIMR's Post-Harvest Processing Centre at Rajendranagar, Hyderabad, is the millets industry's national demonstration and pilot facility. Millets — especially small millets like kodo, kutki, foxtail, barnyard and proso — have historically been demand-constrained because of hard hulls, poor storage life of dehulled grain and the absence of consumer-ready processing. The Centre houses: (a) primary processing lines for dehulling, destoning, grading, polishing and packaging of jowar, ragi and small millets — including compact millet-processing units suitable for FPOs and rural enterprises; (b) secondary processing lines for milling into flour, semolina (rawa / sooji equivalents), extruded snacks (through twin-screw extrusion), noodles and vermicelli, breakfast cereals (flakes, puffs), baked products (biscuits, rusks, breads) and ready-to-cook mixes (upma, dosa, pongal, khichdi); (c) a shelf-life and quality-testing laboratory; (d) a pilot bakery and RTE / RTC development unit. The Centre trains FPOs, KVK teams, women self-help groups and NUTRIHUB startups on the machinery, recipes and quality-control processes, and is one of the reasons India's ready-to-cook millet products segment has scaled sharply in the IYM-2023 aftermath.

How does IIMR's work connect to NFSM, CAZRI, CRIDA and the wider millet ecosystem?

IIMR is the R&D pipeline that feeds India's millets programmes. The NFSM Sub-Mission on Nutri-Cereals — the millets sub-component of the National Food Security Mission (see /nfsm) — draws on IIMR-notified varieties, IIMR-recommended agronomy and IIMR-standardised post-harvest packages for its cluster front-line demonstrations, seed minikits, custom hiring centres and processing units in eligible sorghum, bajra, ragi and small millets districts. ICAR-CAZRI (see /cazri), Jodhpur, jointly works with IIMR on arid-adapted pearl millet (bajra) and small millets for the Thar Desert farming system. ICAR-CRIDA (see /crida), Hyderabad, works with IIMR on rainfed and dryland millets agronomy and climate-resilient contingency planning. Krishi Vigyan Kendras (see /kvks) deliver IIMR millet packages at the district level, and ICAR-ATARI zonal centres (see /atari) manage the KVK network. NUTRIHUB startups feed the millet products supply chain that is picked up by APEDA (see /apeda) and NAFED for domestic and export markets, and IIMR-standardised protocols underpin the ICDS, PDS and school-feeding millet lines under the Shree Anna narrative.

IIMR — ICAR–Indian Institute of Millets Research, Hyderabad: India's Nodal Millets R&D Institute, Home of the AICRP on Sorghum, AICRP on Small Millets, NUTRIHUB Millet Startup Incubator, the Shree Anna Sub-Mission on Nutri-Cereals Package and the Post-Harvest Processing Centre for Sorghum, Bajra, Ragi, Kodo, Kutki, Foxtail, Barnyard and Proso Millets

The ICAR–Indian Institute of Millets Research (IIMR), headquartered at Rajendranagar, Hyderabad 500030, Telangana, is the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)'s nodal institute for research on sorghum (jowar), pearl millet (bajra), finger millet (ragi) and the small millets — kodo, kutki (little millet), foxtail, barnyard and proso. India is the world's largest producer of millets, and IIMR is the R&D anchor that gives that leadership its varietal pipeline, its post-harvest processing package and — through the NUTRIHUB incubator — its startup ecosystem.

From AICRP on Sorghum (1969) to IIMR (28 May 2014)

IIMR's lineage runs through three distinct phases of Indian sorghum and millets research:

All India Coordinated Research Project on Sorghum (AICRP-Sorghum), 1969:ICAR launched the AICRP-Sorghum in 1969 to coordinate national sorghum improvement across a network of State Agricultural University and ICAR centres, with the CSH-series hybrids (starting CSH 1 in 1964 and scaling with CSH 5, CSH 9 and later) driving India's sorghum hybrid revolution.
Directorate of Sorghum Research (DSR), 1987: ICAR upgraded the coordinating unit into a full-fledged institute — the Directorate of Sorghum Research (DSR) — with headquarters at Rajendranagar, Hyderabad, and regional coordination at Solapur (rabi sorghum) and Warangal.
Indian Institute of Millets Research (IIMR), 28 May 2014: To reflect the widened national mandate covering all millets — sorghum, pearl millet, finger millet and the small millets — ICAR upgraded and rechristened DSR as the Indian Institute of Millets Research on 28 May 2014. IIMR now functions as the ICAR lead centre for the AICRP on Sorghum and the AICRP on Small Millets.

Mandate and research divisions

IIMR's mandate spans genetic improvement, crop production, crop protection, post-harvest technology, product development, socio-economics and technology commercialisation. The core research areas are:

Sorghum (jowar) improvement: kharif grain sorghum, rabi (post-rainy) grain sorghum, sweet sorghum for biofuel and syrup, forage sorghum (single-cut and multi-cut), and biofortified sorghum enriched with iron and zinc.
Small millets improvement: finger millet (ragi, Eleusine coracana), kodo millet (Paspalum scrobiculatum), little millet / kutki (Panicum sumatrense), foxtail millet (Setaria italica), barnyard millet (Echinochloa spp.) and proso millet (Panicum miliaceum).
Pearl millet (bajra) coordination: joint work with the AICRP-Pearl Millet network and with ICAR-CAZRI (Jodhpur) for arid-adapted bajra varieties.
Crop production and protection: agronomy, integrated nutrient management, integrated pest and disease management for millets grown mostly on rainfed and marginal lands.
Post-harvest and value addition: dehulling, milling, grading, ready-to-cook and ready-to-eat product development — the flagship line hosted by the Post-Harvest Processing Centre.
Socio-economics, market and policy: demand estimation, price transmission, market linkage, consumer acceptance and PDS / ICDS / school-feeding millet integration studies.
NUTRIHUB — technology commercialisation: the millet-startup incubator, described in detail below.

Location and regional stations

IIMR headquarters is a dedicated ICAR campus at Rajendranagar, Hyderabad 500030, on the Rajendranagar Agricultural Research campus that also hosts Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University (PJTSAU) and multiple other ICAR institutes.

IIMR Regional Station, Solapur, Maharashtra: hosts the AICRP-Sorghum coordination for rabi (post-rainy) sorghum — Solapur, Maharashtra and adjoining north Karnataka and Marathwada are the heartland of India's rabi jowar tract, where sorghum is grown on residual moisture after the south-west monsoon.
IIMR Regional Station, Warangal, Telangana: supports sorghum and small-millet research in the Telangana plateau agro-climatic zone.
AICRP centres — Sorghum: a national network of about 20+ centres across State Agricultural Universities and ICAR institutes in Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and northern hill states.
AICRP centres — Small Millets: about 15 coordinated centres in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and the North-East, covering the diverse agro-ecologies of finger millet, kodo, kutki, foxtail, barnyard and proso.

NUTRIHUB — India's millet startup incubator

NUTRIHUBis the Technology Business Incubator (TBI) hosted by IIMR at Rajendranagar — India's first TBI dedicated to nutri-cereals and millets-based agri-food startups. It is a rare example of an ICAR institute standing up a full-service startup incubator on campus, and it is a cornerstone of the Shree Anna narrative.

Funding backbone: Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) — ASPIRE (A Scheme for Promotion of Innovation, Rural Industry and Entrepreneurship) Livelihood Business Incubator (LBI); Department of Biotechnology — DBT-BIRAC Bio-Nest and Biotechnology Ignition Grant (BIG); and the RKVY-RAFTAARAgri-Business Incubator programme of the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare.
Services to startups:mentoring, business model canvas support, market linkage; equity-free grants and seed funding through RKVY-RAFTAAR, DBT-BIRAC BIG and the ASPIRE window; shared access to IIMR's Post-Harvest Processing Centre — dehullers, mini-mill lines, twin-screw extrusion cooking, pilot bakery, RTC / RTE product development; recipe standardisation and shelf-life testing; FSSAI and IPR facilitation; and structured buyer-seller connect events including the IIMR Millet Trade Meet.
Startup portfolio: NUTRIHUB has incubated well over 100 millet-based startups since its inception, covering ragi flour and biscuits, jowar rotis and multigrain atta, foxtail-millet noodles, barnyard-millet upma mixes, proso-millet snacks, kodo-millet dosa mixes, millet-based baby food, millet beverages, millet snacks and millet health foods — many of which are now retail-shelf brands in Indian and export markets.
Ecosystem role: NUTRIHUB startups feed the millet products supply chain that is picked up by APEDA (see APEDA) for exports, NAFED for domestic institutional demand, and the retail chains that grew rapidly in the IYM-2023 aftermath.

IIMR Post-Harvest Processing Centre

Millets — and especially the small millets — have long been demand-constrained by hard hulls, poor storage life of dehulled grain and the absence of consumer-ready processing. IIMR's Post-Harvest Processing Centre at Rajendranagar is the industry's national demonstration and pilot facility that addresses these bottlenecks. It houses:

Primary processing: dehulling, destoning, grading, polishing and packaging of jowar, ragi and small millets — including compact millet-processing units suitable for FPOs, KVKs and rural enterprises.
Secondary processing: milling into flour and semolina (rawa / sooji equivalents); extruded snacks through twin-screw extrusion; noodles and vermicelli; breakfast cereals (flakes, puffs); baked products (biscuits, rusks, breads); and ready-to-cook / ready-to-eat mixes for upma, dosa, pongal, khichdi and porridges.
Quality and shelf-life testing: a laboratory that tests dehulling recovery, colour, grit, moisture, peroxide value, rancidity, mycotoxin load and packaging shelf-life.
Training: the Centre trains FPOs, KVK teams, women self-help groups and NUTRIHUB startups on the machinery, recipes and quality-control processes.

Shree Anna, IYM-2023 and IIMR as Centre of Excellence

2023 was the United Nations International Year of Millets (IYM-2023), declared on India's proposal. In parallel, the Union Budget 2023-24 branded millets as “Shree Anna” (also spelt Sri Anna), and named IIMR Hyderabad as the Centre of Excellence for sharing best practices, research and technologies on Shree Anna at the international level — positioning IIMR as the global knowledge hub for millets.

Under the Shree Anna narrative and IYM-2023, the Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare and IIMR together drove a coordinated set of interventions:

Expanded coverage of the NFSM Sub-Mission on Nutri-Cereals — increased seed minikits, cluster front-line demonstrations, custom-hiring centres for millet-specific implements and post-harvest millet processing units.
Millet-based mid-day meal, ICDS and PDS pilots in millet-producing and millet-consuming states.
Brand-building and export push via APEDA — India-Pavilion millet showcases at global food fairs (Gulfood, SIAL, Foodex).
The Global Millets (Shree Anna) Conference 2023in New Delhi — an ICAR / DA&FW / IIMR jointly organised international convening.
Scaled NUTRIHUB incubation, RKVY-RAFTAAR grants for millet startups and IIMR training-of-trainers for FPOs and rural enterprises.

Major sorghum and millet variety releases

Under the AICRP on Sorghum and the AICRP on Small Millets, IIMR and its partner State Agricultural Universities have released hundreds of improved sorghum and millet varieties and hybrids across India. Landmark categories include:

Kharif grain-sorghum hybrids:the CSH series (CSH 1 in 1964 was India's first sorghum hybrid; CSH 5 and CSH 9 drove the 1970s-80s sorghum hybrid revolution; later hybrids in the CSH 14, CSH 16, CSH 17, CSH 25, CSH 27, CSH 35 and beyond lines carry the story forward).
Public-sector sorghum varieties: the CSV series (CSV 15, CSV 17, CSV 20, CSV 27) for rainfed production.
Rabi (post-rainy) sorghum varieties: adapted to residual moisture conditions of Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh through the Solapur regional coordination — the rabi jowar of Solapur is a GI-tagged regional identity.
Sweet sorghum: lines such as CSH 22SS and CSV 24SS for biofuel and syrup end-uses.
Forage sorghum: hybrids like CSH-13R and CSH-20MF for the dairy belt, and multi-cut varieties for year-round green fodder.
Biofortified sorghum: iron- and zinc-enriched lines released under the ICAR biofortification programme, aligned with the HarvestPlus agenda.
Finger millet (ragi): improved varieties for Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh rainfed conditions — a crop that IIMR co-coordinates with the University of Agricultural Sciences, Bengaluru (UAS-B) AICRP small-millets centre.
Small millets: improved foxtail, barnyard, kodo, kutki and proso lines with better dehulling recovery, reduced iron content in the hull and higher grain yield.

The definitive, current list of notified varieties is maintained on millets.res.in.

Linkages with the wider Indian millets ecosystem

NFSM (Sub-Mission on Nutri-Cereals): the millets sub-component of the National Food Security Mission — cluster front-line demonstrations, seed minikits, custom-hiring centres and processing units in eligible sorghum, bajra, ragi and small millets districts, running on IIMR-notified varieties and IIMR-standardised packages.
ICAR-CAZRI (Jodhpur): joint work with IIMR on arid-adapted pearl millet (bajra) and small millets for the Thar Desert farming system.
ICAR-CRIDA (Hyderabad): joint work on rainfed and dryland millets agronomy, contingency planning and climate-resilient millet packages.
ICAR-ATARI zonal centres and Krishi Vigyan Kendras: deliver IIMR millet packages at the district level through the KVK network.
APEDA: the export bridge for NUTRIHUB-incubated millet products and IIMR-standardised processing packages into the Indian millets export basket.
ICAR-NBPGR: the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources at Pusa, New Delhi, that conserves the millets germplasm base IIMR's breeding programme draws on.
ICAR-IARI and NBPGR:sister ICAR crop-sciences institutes that complement IIMR's millets mandate within the wider ICAR system.
Central agriculture schemes portfolio: the wider farmer-welfare envelope in which IIMR / NFSM Nutri-Cereals / APEDA / NAFED millet interventions sit.

NFSM

National Food Security Mission — its Sub-Mission on Nutri-Cereals is the millets sub-component that runs on IIMR-notified varieties and IIMR-standardised packages.

CAZRI

ICAR–Central Arid Zone Research Institute, Jodhpur — joint arid-adapted pearl millet (bajra) and small-millets work with IIMR for the Thar Desert farming system.

CRIDA

ICAR–Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture, Hyderabad — joint work on rainfed and dryland millets agronomy and climate-resilient contingency planning.

IIPR

ICAR-Indian Institute of Pulses Research, Kanpur — sister ICAR nodal institute for pulses; IIPR:pulses :: IIMR:millets in the ICAR institutional map.

IIHR

ICAR–Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, Bengaluru — sister horticulture-focused institute in the ICAR crop-sciences complex.

IIRR

ICAR–Indian Institute of Rice Research, Hyderabad — Rajendranagar campus neighbour of IIMR; the rice counterpart to IIMR's millets mandate.

IARI

ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Pusa, New Delhi — the flagship crop-sciences Deemed University; complements IIMR within the ICAR system.

NBPGR

ICAR-National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources — conserves the millets germplasm base IIMR's breeding programme draws on.

ATARI

Agricultural Technology Application Research Institutes — zonal ICAR centres propagating IIMR millet packages through the KVK network.

Krishi Vigyan Kendras

District-level ICAR farm-science centres delivering IIMR millet varieties, agronomy and post-harvest packages to rainfed and marginal-land farmers.

APEDA

Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority — the export bridge for NUTRIHUB-incubated millet products and IIMR processing packages.

Universities & Research Institutes

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

References

millets.res.in — ICAR-IIMR Hyderabad official portal: research divisions, AICRP on Sorghum and AICRP on Small Millets networks, notified sorghum and millet varieties, Post-Harvest Processing Centre, NUTRIHUB incubator, Millet Trade Meet and training calendars.
icar.org.in — Indian Council of Agricultural Research — parent institution of IIMR, and the source for the 28 May 2014 renaming order that established IIMR from the erstwhile Directorate of Sorghum Research.
agriwelfare.gov.in — Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare — parent department for NFSM and its Sub-Mission on Nutri-Cereals that IIMR feeds with varieties and packages.
apeda.gov.in — APEDA — export-promotion body for millet products emerging from NUTRIHUB and IIMR-standardised processing lines.
indiabudget.gov.in — Union Budget 2023-24 speech and Budget-at-a-Glance documents, which named IIMR Hyderabad as the Centre of Excellence for Shree Anna.
fao.org/millets-2023 — Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations — International Year of Millets 2023 portal, declared on India's proposal.
Press Information Bureau (PIB) — Government of India press releases on IIMR performance, NUTRIHUB incubation, Shree Anna Centre of Excellence, Global Millets Conference 2023 and NFSM Nutri-Cereals expansion.

Frequently asked questions

What is IIMR and when was it founded?: IIMR — the ICAR–Indian Institute of Millets Research — is India's nodal Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) institute for research on sorghum (jowar) and small millets (kodo, kutki, foxtail, barnyard, proso), headquartered at Rajendranagar, Hyderabad 500030, Telangana. Its lineage runs from the All India Coordinated Research Project on Sorghum (AICRP-Sorghum), which was formally launched in 1969 under the ICAR system to coordinate national sorghum improvement, through the establishment of the Directorate of Sorghum Research (DSR) at Rajendranagar in 1987, and finally the upgradation and rechristening as the Indian Institute of Millets Research (IIMR) by ICAR on 28 May 2014, with the expanded mandate covering all millets — sorghum, pearl millet, finger millet and small millets. IIMR reports to ICAR under the Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE), Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Government of India.
Where is IIMR located and what are its regional stations?: IIMR's headquarters is a dedicated ICAR campus at Rajendranagar, Hyderabad 500030, Telangana — the same Rajendranagar Agricultural Research campus that hosts the Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University (PJTSAU) and several other ICAR institutes. To cover India's diverse millet-growing agro-climatic zones, IIMR operates a Regional Station at Solapur, Maharashtra (which hosts the AICRP on Sorghum coordination for post-rainy / rabi sorghum — Solapur is at the heart of India's rabi jowar tract), and a Regional Station at Warangal, Telangana. As the lead centre for the AICRP on Sorghum and the AICRP on Small Millets, IIMR further coordinates a national network of about 20+ AICRP-Sorghum centres and about 15 AICRP-Small Millets centres located at State Agricultural Universities and ICAR institutes across sorghum, ragi, kodo, kutki, foxtail, barnyard and proso growing states — from Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Maharashtra to Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Uttarakhand and the North-East.
What is IIMR's research mandate?: IIMR's mandate covers basic, strategic and applied research on the entire millets crop group of India: (a) genetic improvement, varietal development and hybrid development of sorghum (kharif and rabi grain sorghum, sweet sorghum, forage sorghum) and of small millets (finger millet / ragi, kodo millet, little millet / kutki, foxtail millet, barnyard millet, proso millet); (b) pearl millet / bajra basic research and coordination through AICRP mechanisms in partnership with ICAR-AICRP centres and state agricultural universities; (c) crop production, protection and management packages tailored to rainfed and marginal-land conditions where millets are grown; (d) post-harvest processing, primary and secondary value-addition — dehulling, milling, grading, ready-to-cook and ready-to-eat products; (e) socio-economics, market linkage and demand generation for millets; (f) millets-based technology commercialisation via the NUTRIHUB incubator; (g) capacity-building and technology transfer through KVKs, state departments and the AICRP network. IIMR is the ICAR lead centre for the AICRP on Sorghum and the AICRP on Small Millets.
What is NUTRIHUB and how does it support millet startups?: NUTRIHUB is the Technology Business Incubator (TBI) hosted by IIMR at Rajendranagar, Hyderabad — India's first TBI dedicated to nutri-cereals and millets-based agri-food startups. It was set up with support from the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) under the ASPIRE (A Scheme for Promotion of Innovation, Rural Industry and Entrepreneurship) Livelihood Business Incubator (LBI) framework, and further scaled with the Department of Biotechnology's DBT-BIRAC Bio-Nest and BIG (Biotechnology Ignition Grant) support, and with contributions from the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY-RAFTAAR) Agri-Business Incubator programme. NUTRIHUB provides millet startups end-to-end incubation: (a) mentoring, business model canvas support and market linkage; (b) grants and equity-free seed funding through RKVY-RAFTAAR, DBT-BIRAC BIG and the ASPIRE window; (c) shared access to IIMR's Post-Harvest Processing Centre — dehullers, mini-mill lines, extrusion cooking, pilot bakery, RTC / RTE product development; (d) recipe-standardisation and shelf-life testing; (e) FSSAI and IPR facilitation; (f) demo runs at IIMR Millet Trade Meets and buyer-seller connect events. NUTRIHUB has incubated well over 100 millet-based startups since inception, spanning ragi flour, jowar rotis, foxtail-millet noodles, barnyard-millet upma mixes, proso-millet snacks, kodo-millet dosa mixes, millet-based baby food, millet beverages and millet health foods.
What is India's Shree Anna narrative and how does IIMR anchor it?: 'Shree Anna' (also spelt Sri Anna — literally 'the honoured grain') is the Government of India's branding for millets adopted in the Union Budget 2023-24, in the wake of the United Nations declaring 2023 as the International Year of Millets (IYM-2023) on India's proposal. In the Budget 2023-24, the Finance Minister named IIMR Hyderabad as the Centre of Excellence for sharing best practices, research and technologies on Shree Anna at the international level, positioning IIMR as the global knowledge hub for millets. Under the Shree Anna narrative, the Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare has scaled the NFSM Sub-Mission on Nutri-Cereals — the millets sub-component of the National Food Security Mission — with expanded coverage of jowar, bajra, ragi and small millets districts, increased seed minikits, cluster front-line demonstrations, custom-hiring centres for millet-specific implements, post-harvest millet processing units, brand-building support (through APEDA and NAFED), millet-based mid-day meal and ICDS pilots, and millet-based ready-to-cook exports. IIMR provides the varietal pipeline, the post-harvest processing recipes and standards, and the NUTRIHUB startup pipeline that give the Shree Anna narrative operational substance.
What are IIMR's major sorghum and millet variety releases?: Under the AICRP on Sorghum and the AICRP on Small Millets, IIMR has, together with partner State Agricultural Universities, developed and released hundreds of improved sorghum and millet varieties and hybrids across India. Landmark and widely grown categories include: (a) kharif grain sorghum hybrids such as CSH series (CSH 1 through the CSH 40+ series developed over decades — early hybrids like CSH 5 and CSH 9 transformed sorghum yields in the 1970s-80s) and public-sector varieties (CSV series such as CSV 15, CSV 17, CSV 20, CSV 27); (b) rabi (post-rainy) sorghum varieties adapted to residual moisture conditions of Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, developed through the Solapur regional coordination; (c) sweet sorghum lines (e.g. CSH 22SS, CSV 24SS) for biofuel and syrup end-uses; (d) forage sorghum hybrids (CSH-13R, CSH-20MF) and multi-cut varieties for the dairy belt; (e) biofortified sorghum varieties enriched with iron and zinc — a HarvestPlus-aligned biofortification line (e.g. ICSR 14001, biofortified sorghum released under ICAR biofortification guidelines); (f) finger millet (ragi) varieties suited to Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand and Odisha rainfed conditions; (g) foxtail-millet, barnyard-millet, kodo, kutki and proso improved lines aligned with the AICRP on Small Millets. The full and current list of notified varieties is maintained on millets.res.in.
What is IIMR's Post-Harvest Processing Centre and why does it matter?: IIMR's Post-Harvest Processing Centre at Rajendranagar, Hyderabad, is the millets industry's national demonstration and pilot facility. Millets — especially small millets like kodo, kutki, foxtail, barnyard and proso — have historically been demand-constrained because of hard hulls, poor storage life of dehulled grain and the absence of consumer-ready processing. The Centre houses: (a) primary processing lines for dehulling, destoning, grading, polishing and packaging of jowar, ragi and small millets — including compact millet-processing units suitable for FPOs and rural enterprises; (b) secondary processing lines for milling into flour, semolina (rawa / sooji equivalents), extruded snacks (through twin-screw extrusion), noodles and vermicelli, breakfast cereals (flakes, puffs), baked products (biscuits, rusks, breads) and ready-to-cook mixes (upma, dosa, pongal, khichdi); (c) a shelf-life and quality-testing laboratory; (d) a pilot bakery and RTE / RTC development unit. The Centre trains FPOs, KVK teams, women self-help groups and NUTRIHUB startups on the machinery, recipes and quality-control processes, and is one of the reasons India's ready-to-cook millet products segment has scaled sharply in the IYM-2023 aftermath.
How does IIMR's work connect to NFSM, CAZRI, CRIDA and the wider millet ecosystem?: IIMR is the R&D pipeline that feeds India's millets programmes. The NFSM Sub-Mission on Nutri-Cereals — the millets sub-component of the National Food Security Mission (see /nfsm) — draws on IIMR-notified varieties, IIMR-recommended agronomy and IIMR-standardised post-harvest packages for its cluster front-line demonstrations, seed minikits, custom hiring centres and processing units in eligible sorghum, bajra, ragi and small millets districts. ICAR-CAZRI (see /cazri), Jodhpur, jointly works with IIMR on arid-adapted pearl millet (bajra) and small millets for the Thar Desert farming system. ICAR-CRIDA (see /crida), Hyderabad, works with IIMR on rainfed and dryland millets agronomy and climate-resilient contingency planning. Krishi Vigyan Kendras (see /kvks) deliver IIMR millet packages at the district level, and ICAR-ATARI zonal centres (see /atari) manage the KVK network. NUTRIHUB startups feed the millet products supply chain that is picked up by APEDA (see /apeda) and NAFED for domestic and export markets, and IIMR-standardised protocols underpin the ICDS, PDS and school-feeding millet lines under the Shree Anna narrative.

The lineage from AICRP on Sorghum (1969) to the Directorate of Sorghum Research (1987) to the Indian Institute of Millets Research (28 May 2014), the Rajendranagar (Hyderabad 500030) headquarters, the Solapur and Warangal Regional Stations, the national AICRP-Sorghum and AICRP-Small Millets networks, NUTRIHUB (ASPIRE + DBT-BIRAC + RKVY-RAFTAAR), the Post-Harvest Processing Centre, the CSH / CSV hybrid and varietal lineage, the IYM-2023 declaration, the Union Budget 2023-24 Centre of Excellence designation for Shree Anna and the ecosystem linkages with NFSM Nutri-Cereals, CAZRI, CRIDA, ATARI, KVKs and APEDA above draw on publicly available material on millets.res.in, icar.org.in, agriwelfare.gov.in, apeda.gov.in, indiabudget.gov.in, fao.org and PIB releases. Divisional structure, ongoing projects, released varieties, NUTRIHUB startup cohorts and AICRP centre counts are periodically revised — confirm current details on millets.res.in before planning research visits, breeder-seed requests or incubation applications.