About Institute
Indian Council of Agricultural Research rendered due priority to quality seed production through launch of ‘All India Coordinated Research Project on National Seed Project (Crops)’ in 1979. Based on the significant strides made under AICRP-NSP (Crops), the Project Coordination Unit of AICRP-NSP (Crops) was upgraded to the status of Project Directorate during X Plan and rechristened as ‘Directorate of Seed Research’ (DSR), which started operating since 31st December 2004 from Kushmaur village in the district of Maunath Bhanjan, Uttar Pradesh. Based on the significant achievements made in a decade long journey in the areas of quality seed production and seed technological research, the council in its Governing Body meeting in 2016 has further upgraded the Directorate of Seed Research to ‘Indian Institute of Seed Science’ (IISS). ICAR-IISS is a unique institute of ICAR engaged exclusively to coordinate and conduct seed science research countrywide. Besides its mandate for undertaking seed production and seed technology research, the institute is deem to undertake training and capacity building in this important sector of agriculture. Institute also has a regional station at Bengaluru, which is aimed to supply planting material to the down-south region. The institute is about 120 km towards North-East of the Holy City of Varanasi, UP, India.
Vision: Ensure seed security to the farmers through technological intervention for sustainable agriculture.
Mission: Enhancing genetic and physical characteristics of seed for increased productivity, quality and sustainability.
Mandate/ Objectives:
1: To perform basic, strategic and anticipatory research in seed science and technology.
2: To coordinate the seed production and seed technology research.
3: To impart capacity building in the field of seed production, testing, quality assurance, certification and policy issues.