About us

Last Updated: August 23, 2021

Shivalik Agricultural Research and Extension Centre Kangra

The Shivalik Agricultural Research and Extension Centre (SAREC) is located at 32⁰ 09’N latitude and 76⁰ 22’E longitude in the historic town of Kangra overlooking majestic Dhauladhar range of  western Himalayas in the North. The place is 700m above mean sea level on Chandigarh-Dharamshala highway. This place is about 18 km from the famous hill station Dharamsala and 35 km from CSK Himachal Pradesh KrishiVishvaVidyalaya, Palampur. The centre is well connected by road and rail to Pathankot Railway Station which is about 80 km. Dharamshala airportlocated at Gaggal is only 8 km away from the centre.

History

The Shivalik Agricultural Research and Extension Centre (SAREC), Kangra earlier known as Oilseeds Research Station, Kangra was established in 1926 as a District Demonstration Farm by the Department of Agriculture of the erstwhile Punjab to look into problems of hill farmers.  Research work on oilseeds was started with the introduction of linseed and soybean germplasm in 1945.     

With the establishment of Himachal Pradesh University in 1970, the station became a part of the Agricultural Complex of the University. It became the part of the H.P. Krishi Vishva Vidyalaya in 1978. Oilseed improvement work got an impetus with the sanction of ICAR project on oilseeds in 1980. In 1981, ICAR sanctioned a regular project on oilseeds covering Brassica and linseed crops which later on separated into two schemes, on the creation of separate National Research Centre on Rapeseed-Mustard.  AICRP linseed scheme excepting pathology discipline was shifted to CSKHPKV, Palampur in 2010. AICRP maize is also in operation at this centre since 1998.  Besides the above mentioned regular schemes, co-ordinated trials on sesamum, barley and soybean are also conducted regularly at the centre as AICRP volunteer centre.           .

The research infrastructure at the Station was quite deficient prior to the sanction of the World Bank Project through NARP Phase II in 1992. Since then, the Station has been strengthened to some extent in terms of manpower and laboratory infrastructure. The station still requires further strengthening in terms of office and laboratory infrastructure.

Area, Soil and Rainfall of Centre

The stationhas an area of about 3.0 ha spread in two blocks (A & B). The main block A is having 1.8 ha area with adequate irrigation facilities. The block B has an area of 1.2 ha with limited irrigation facilities.The soil of these blocks is clay-loam in texture with pH around 6.5 and low in nitrogen and medium in available phosphorus and potash. The annual average rainfall is about 1849 mm, of which 80 % is received during kharif and rest during rabi season.