AGRICULTURAL tNFORMATION NETWORK IN INDIA

Traoes the historioat devetopment of agriout-turaZ researoh institutes and their Zibraries inIndia. Surveys the vorld output of agriouUuraZliterature and enumerates the Indian indering andabstraoting servioes in agrioutturat soienoes.Works out a model:for the NationaZ aqx-ioul.tural:infonmticn netlJork.

BACKGROUND

Present day agricultural research. does notlimlt itself to the techniques of farming alone; it hasbroadened its scope to embrace both basic andapplied sciences involved with the production of food,and materials for shelter and clothing as well aswith the improvement of plants and animals andtheir protection and conservation. The other relatedareas are marketing and distribution of agriculturalproduce and socio-economic problems of farrners.Agr iculturar sciences mainly include plant sc ienc~s,forestry, animal husbandry, fisher ies and mar ineproducts. With the alarming rate of growth inpopulation, results of agricultural research arebeing put into widespread use for maximising pro-duction. At present over 3000 scientific institutes,universities. colleges and agricultural experimentstations are engaged in R &r. D work in the field ofagriculture in the world [9},

2 AGRICULT URAL RESEARCH AND EDUCA~TIONAL COMPLEX IN INDIA

Scientific agr icult ure began to receiveattention in India with the establishment of hnperialDepartment of Agriculture (Cal'cutta) in 1881 andfollowed by the errie r oenc e of State Departments ofAgriculture in Bombay, Madras, Shillong, Allaha-bad and Nagpur between 1883 and 1895. The IndianVeterinary Research Institute, Izatnagar with onedivision at Mukteswar made its modest beginning ashnperial Bacteriology Laboratory at P'oona in 1893.However, it was in the beginning of this century thatthe Gov.r~.nt of India r e cog ni s ed the need for theestabUahInent of a sound system and laid the founda-

110

SURENDAR MOHANINSDOC, Delhi-llOOl2

tion of organized research in India ri n 1905 by esta-blishing the Agricultural Research Station and theExperimental Farm (Later called the Irrrper ialInstitute of Agricultural Research and still later ,after independence, the Indian Agricultural ResearchInstitute). Irnper ial (now Indian) Council of Agri-cultural Research was established in 1929 as aRegistered Society. A number of Central CommodityCommittees dealing with research in respect ofparticular crops were set up between 1921 and 1962as semi -autonomous bodies and were located in themain I!rowing regions of the crops concerned.Further the Government of India also established'tnder their direct administrative control a number ofResearch Institutes such as the Central Rice Resear-~ch Institute, Cuttack (946), the Forest ResearchInstit..te and Colleges, Dehra Dun (1906), the NationalDairy Research Institute, Karnal(l922) , the CentralPotato Research Institute, Simla (1949) etc. [6]. -Similarly, the State Governments also set up theirOwn Research Institutes and Experimental ResearchFarms. Ther e ar e a number of other researchinstitutio ns, such as Tea, Coffee and Rubber Boar ds,Central Food Technological Research Institute, theBot anic al and Zoological Surveys of India, conductingresearch in agriculture or connected subjects. Indianagricultural research was reorganised in 1966 and asa result 33 research institutions are functioning atpr es ent under the auspicies of the Indian Council ofAgricultural Research. There are also 21 agri-cultural universities and 73 agricultural-and 24veterinary colleges in different states. Variousinstitutes and universities have their sub -s tatto nsand farms. Different States have their own directo-rates in agriculture, extension, marketing and in-spection. There is also an International CropsResearch Institute for the Semi Arid Tropics atHyderabad. In addition, the country has huge com-plexes of the Goverrnnent of India like FertilizerCorporation, Foo d Corpor ation and National SeedCorporation, etc. There are similar other com-plexes in private sectors also. -

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AGRICULTURAL INFORMATION NETWORK IN INDIA

3 AGRIC ULT URAL LIBR ARIES IN INDIA

The history of agricultural libraries in IndiaJs the history of agricultural research and traininginstitutions. The IeAR in st it ute/, agricultural uni-versities, agricultural and vete;·inary colleges, andstate departments of agriculture have their ownlibraries and have collections of varying sizes.Some of these libraries over the years have enlargedtheir collection, equi prrient , facilities and services.For exarnple , the libraries of The Indian AgriculturalResearch Institute, The Indian Veterinary ResearchInstitute and The National Dairy Research Instituteare known for their rich collection in their respectiveareas in agricultural sciences. The Indian Councilof Agricultural Research organized two survey teamsin 1957 and 1967, to study the library and docu-rrierrtat ion activities in agricultural libraries. Thereport of the second survey which was published in1969 carried valuable recotnmendations directedtoward evolving a national system of agriculturallibraries and documentation centres, with thelibraries of The Indian Agricultural ResearchInstitute, The Indian Veterinary Research Institute,al}ti the National Dairy Research Institute functioningal national libraries in agriculture, veterinary anddairy science respectively. The report revealedthat ICAR libraries have over 620, 000 volumes and9,832 current serials with them. Agricultural Uni-versities in the country have over 780, 000 volumesand 11,392 current serials. However th ese librariesdo not follow any uniform practice in cataloguing andclassification. [7]

4 QUANTUM OF AGRICULTURE LITERATURE

The estimates of the world output of agri-cultural literature vary considerably. Boyle andBuntrock in their. study, 'Survey of World Agri-cultural Documentation Services', mentioned a totalof l, 769, 000 items as reported in 354 secondaryperiodicals taken together (3). However, this figurerepresents multiple reporting of the same item ofinformation in different secondary services. It hasbeen estimated that over 25, 000 books and mono-graphs are published each year in agro-biologicalsciences (9). In addition, various agriculturalexperiment stations, university and researchinstitutes, all over the world publish 900-1000 bul-letin series. Scientific reports and theses accountfor a go&d deal of literature and their importance iswell recognised. The 'World List of ScientificPeriodicals' Hsts about 60, 000 titles of which around15, 000 serials are of interest to agricultural scien-tists. The Directory of Indian Scientific Periodicalsbrought out by INSDOC in 1976 has reported 308agricultural periodicals published in India [5].Various estimates have been made about the annualoutput of scientific contributions made in periodicalsand they range from one to three million articles.Saxena has reported 1, 200, 000 articles published inIS, 000 periodicals published in. the field of agri-cultural sciences (14). According to Ande r a Ia , the

Vol 25 No 1-4 Mar-Dec 1978

presently available estimation on the volume ofinformation are on the lower side [1]. Further to thestock of published information must be added un-published sources of information. According toSoviet estimates. more than 70":,. of information isunpublished. It is considered that the proportion ofunpublished information in the field of agriculture ishigher than the published information.

41 Abstracting and Indexing Services in Agri-cultural Sciences

Traditionally the literature of the sciences is.controlled" through indexes. reference lists (ar-ranged in some useful order for current awareness)or abstracting servi ces. Abstracting and indexingservices play an important role in bringing informa-tion within the reach of its users and they serve as aprincipal access device to the existing information.Abstracting services, though slower. give moreinformation for a comparatively deepe r study.Numerous indexing and abstracting services havesprung up all over the world. They are diverse in

, scope, uneven in coverage. and national or inter-national in character. Boyle and Buntrock in theirsurvey have categorised 124 indexing (29 computeriz-ed) and 230 abstracting (45 computerized) servicespublished from 41 countries and in 21 languages (3).

To reduce the time iag between primary and second - -ary publications more and more abstracting andindexing services are employing computers to speedup the pr oduc t ion of their publications. As a spin-off, important data bases are being built up in aformat arnena ble to Selective Dis semination ofInformation (SDI) and to eventual rapid retrieval ofretrospective data by mechanical searching. Themost important international abstracting and indexingservices in the field of agriculture in English langu-age at present are: CAB Abstracts of the Common-wealth Agricultural Bureaux, U. K., Bibliography ofAgriculture, Bio-Sciences Information Services ofBiological Abstracts. Abstracts of the InformationRetrieval Ltd , , London and AGRINDEX of Inter-national Information System for the AgriculturalSciences &. Technology (Agris). Internationalservices are by no means comprehensive and nocountry can afford to dispense with their nationalabs t r a ct ing and indexing services. John Sherrod,until recently the Director of the U. S. NationalAgricultural Library. Washington made this frankstatement at a meeting of South American Agri-cultural Librarians held in Buenos Aires in April1972. "In recent years ••• it has been painfully clearto us that the magnitude of the information problemin agriculture, as in most areas of knowledge. hasgrown beyond the capacity of anyone institution orcountrytoha~d'ie efrectlveiY• We fTno ourselves-iZithe embarrassing position of facing continually risingcosts of system operation. while s irnultaneouslyhandling. substantially smaller portions of the tO~3LI

--inf~rmation output" (15). This--statement is supple-mented by a study made by Rajagopalan and others onthe coverage of Indian literature in the CAB abstractsThe study revealed that de aprte all efforts Indian

111

SURENDAR MOHAN

agricultural literature is being reported only to anextent of 30 -400/. in CAB abstracts, though India isone of the member countries of the Commonwealthand is one of the financiers of the CAB abstractingservic~ [P]. Similarly in another pap~r Raja-gopalan ~al. (1963) made a survey of the extent ofinc1us ion of Ind ian doc uments in the field of agr i-culture, botany, anomal husbandry and zoology inBiological Abstracts as compared to its reporting inBibliography of Scientific Publications of SOlSh EastAsia. Only 13.90/. of the documents were abstract-ed (in Bl ofog ica.I Abstracts) in six to seven monthsand even after one year 50"/0 of the documents w er enot abstracted. The studied only confirm the need fornational abstracting and inde xlng s er v ic es , [l}l.411 National Abstracting and Indexing Services in

Agriculture

At the national level the service has to bemore comprehensive of the broad subject areas ofinterest with a bias towards the research needs ofthe country as a whole. At the institutional level,this service usually tends to be in the form of localdocumentation lists compiled basing the periodicalsacquired in the library or documentation section.Some of the services emanating from Indianinstitutes and are of interest to agricultural scientistare gmen in appendix 1.

5 ROLE OF LIBRARIES AND INFORMATIONCENTRES IN AGRICULTURE

51 !CAR's Role

Indian Council of Agricultural Research_(IC AR) is supervising and developing the library and, documentation facilities of agricultural researchinstitutions in the country. In 1969, a plan wasworked out to establish a national system. of agri-cultural information with a National AgriculturalLibrary at its centre. The Iibr a r y of the IndianAgricultural Research Institute (lARI), New Delhi,which is one of the oldest and biggest agriculturallibraries of the country, might be designated asthe National Agricultural Library and a network ofagricultural libraries and documentation units maybe knit together into a coherent agricultural inform.a-tion network in the country. At present the IARIlibrary has a holding 260,000 volumes and receivesabout 4800 current serials annually and serves about150 readers per day. Catalogue of Serials in thelARI Library brought in 1967 contains 5448 entries,which includes current & ceased ser ia la [4]. Thenumber will now be around 6,000. The library isbuilding up Indian Bibliography of Agriculture(Indian)Agricultural Reference Media) since 1944. The biblio-graphy contains about 100,000 references and is arra-nged in two parts:alphabetical part by author, and sub-ject part in classified order according to UniversalDecimal Classification Scheme. The subject partalso contains added entries. The bibliography isbeing kept updated through the addition of about8000 entires per year, prepared by scanning over

112

700 Indian and foreign periodicals for work done byIndian scientists relating to Indian agriculture.

ICAR has established in 1967 a cu r r entresearch information centre entitled ResearchProject Unit at its headquarters in Delhi on themodel of Current Research Information Sy.tem(CRIS) of US Department of A~riculture. TheUnit is responsible for coll-ection, collation, index-in~ and dis se mination of information pertainin~ toall on-~oin~ ag r icu lt ur al research projects inIndia. Data pe rt a in ing to 7500 research projectsInvo lv ing 12, 000 a~ricultural research workersin the country have been collected. ICAR ispart ic ipat ing in the International InformationSystem for the Ag r icultur al Science, and Technolo~y(AGRIS) since May 1975. II.hdin the CARIS Projectsince September 1975. The Research ProjectUnit of ICAR is r eg ula r ly se nding input data to theAGRIS data base at Vienna. About 200 Indianjournals besides the non-conventional types ofliterature, are scanned for the collection of inputdata.

Indian veterinary Research Institute librariesat Iz atri aga r and Mukteswar contain about 100,000volumes and subscribe, to about 1000 serials inanirn al husbandry, veterinary and a~ricultural -s cie ntfe s , At the Mukteswar Branch, a usefulinformation file has been built up dur ing 1905 to1947. The file contains about 40,000 reference. oncards which are of immense value to veterinaryscientists. National Dairy Research Institute,Karnal, has a valuable collection of about 45,000bound volumes and subscribes to over 600 journalsof interest to dairy scientists in t he country.

52 Publications and Information Directorate andother CSIR Librarie s

The Publications and Information Directorate(PID) of CSIR has been publ ishing an encyclopaediaentitled 'Wealth of India'. For this encycIopa;diaan information file has been in preparation for overthree decades. It has at pres-ent over 4; OOpOOOreferences which are filed under approx. 5000subject he ad ings cornpr is ing botanical name a forplants, common names for animals, minerals andIndust r ie s , Cor r e spondtng file s of information(led~ers' have also been built with necessary photo-copies, reprints etc. and at present they numberabout 5000. Currently it is s cr een ing 939 pe r io dlc elaand serials and 450 annual reports be aid es 20ab st r act ing periodicals. About 25,000 referencesare added each year. The Documentation Sectionof the PID publishes quarterly 'Bulletin of IndianRaw Materials and Their Utilization' in two se r ie esince 1977. Series A deals with Current Literatureon M'edicinal and Aromatic Plants and Se rte s Bdeals with Current Literature on Raw Materiahother than Medicinal and Aromatic Planh. Over200 Ind ian and fo r e ign jour nal e are IIcanned to choosetitles of interest. Abstractll '(about 1200 in a year) -

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AGRICULTURAL INFORMATION NETWORK IN INDIA

are alao siven along with these titles. The bol d ing eof the libraries of CSIR laboratories and institutesare partly or wholly suited to the asriculturalscientist.. A 'Survey of the CSIR libraries', carriedout by Raj agopal an and Ramaswami in 1970[.12]reveals that the libraries of National BotanicalGardens (NBG}, Central Indian Medicinal PlantsOrsani.ation (ClMPO), Central Food Te chnol ogic alResearch Institute (CFTRI}, and some otherinstitutes contain conaiderable amount of literatureof asricultural interest.

53 Di rectorate of Agricultural Economics &.Statistics, N. Delhi

The Directorate is an important organisationwhich collects, collates and disseminates usefulinformation on agricultural statistics in the country.The information is published in various publicationsbrought out by the organisation. Important subjectscovered by the Directorate are: Agricultural prices,agricultural wages, commercial crops, estimatesof areas and production of principal crops, farmprices, food statistics, etc.

54 Libraries of Surveys of India

A wealth of information and literature isavailable atthe Botanical Survey of India (BSn,Geo-logical Survey of India (GSn and Zoological Survey ofIndia (ZSI).

55 Other Libraries and Information Centres

In addition to the above institutes and o r gani,sations agricultural information is also emanatingfrom Central Ground Water Board (CGWB), Ferti-liser Association of India (FAI), National SeedCorporation of India (NSCl) , Pesticide Association ofIndia (PAl), Agricultural Machinery ManufactureAssociation (AMMA), Directorate of Marketing andInspection, Central Water and Power Commission,Bha bha Atomic Research Commission (BARC),various meteorology departments, etc. [8].

6 NISSAT

The Department of Science and Technologyhas included a proposal for the development of aNational Info r rrrat ion System for Science and Techno-logy (NISSAT) in its programme of Science &. Techno-logy. It has been envisaged that this programmewill lead to interlinking and coordination of a Ia r genumber of information sources, systems andservices into an effective network. This informationnetwork will function under an overall coordinatingagency with a national information policy for guidance.This will be an important step toward meeting theinformation needs of, "scientists, engineers, technologists, management personnel and technic ians , thegovernment, the industry and business etc. at alllevelS in all varieties of organisation, projects andmissions. efficiently and effectively with a minimum

Vol 25 No 1-4 Mar-Dec 1978

of dupl ication of efforts'·. It is alao intended torecognize and identify the lacunae in informationsources and services and to make effort to fill upthese gaps. Another important feature of.NISSATwould be the development d internally compatiblenational standards and guidelines for informationhandling techniques which will facilitate interchangeof information. A sum of. Rs.!. 6 crores has beenallocated for the development of the NISSAT in theremaining period of the Fifth Plan. The present andthe proposed national information centres wouldconstitute the top level of organisation (10).

61 National Network

A network in information field means a syste-matic organisation of interconnected libraries.documentation and information centres {or achievinggreater economy and efficiency. AgriculturaliDformation network in India would therefore be anetwork of participation of three proposed nationalagricultural libraries namely lARi. IVRI and NDRI.other libraries of the ICAR. Agricultural Univer-sities Libraries, and ICRISAT. and cooperation oflibraries of the food, fertilizer and seed corpora-tion. vae-tous commissions and surveys, libraries ofCSIR complex, Coffee. Tea and Rubber boards etc.Diagram in appendix 2 represents the AgriculturalInformation Network in India. This network wouldform one sector of the NISSAT.

7 INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION

The exponential rate of growth of publicationand information embodied in these publications hasforced not only the developing but even the developedcountries of the world to pool their informationresources at the international level and the netresult is the emergence of International Systemsviz , International Nuclear Information System (INlS).International Information System for the AgriculturalSciences and Technology (AGRIS). As already statedin section 51, in the agriculture field. India is parti-cipating in AGRIS. FAO has also sponsoredAGLINET. a world wide network consisting of achain of eleven major agricultural libraries inseveral regions or countries of the world. AGLINETmakes scientific and technical literature availablethrough mutual exploitation of agricultural libraryresources. It also supports and monitors the workof AGRIS and promotes inter-regional co -ordinationin the aquisition of serials avoiding duplication.

[1] Andrela G: Information in 1985 - A forecast-ing study of information nee'd s and resources.Paris. Organisation for Economic Coopera-tion and Development, 1973.

[2] Bose PC: Information systems in the fieldof agriculture vis -a-vis the Agri. System.Ludhiana, ICAR -PAU Seminar on Alric.uturalLtbea r ianehtp and Documentatioa. 2-5 Feb-ruary, 1977. p.I.-IS.

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SURENDAR MOHAN

[3] Boyle PC and Buntrock H: Survey of worldagricultural documentat t on services. Rome,FAO, lq73. p.q & rs-zz.

[4] Catalogue of serials in the Indian AgriculturalResearc:b Institute Library. Delhi, IndianNational, Scientific Documentation Centre,1967. Union Catalogue series 4.

[S] Directory of Indian Scientific Periodicals,19'76. Delhi, Indian National Scientific Docu-mention Centre, 1976.

[6] ICAR and its institutes. New Delhi, IndianCouncil of Agricultural Research, May 1971,84pp.

[7] Indo American Library Survey of Study Team:Final report of the ICAR Institutions &Libraries, New Delhi, lCAR,1969. l8pp.

Phadnis S P and Ashan A S: Indian agri-cultural data and information. Ann Lib SciDoc 1976, 23(I),p.87-98.

[9] Phadnis S P and Aahan A S: World agri-cultural itt' ormation and availability to Indianscientists. Ann Lib Sci Doc 1974, 21( 1-2),p.32.

[10] Rajagopalan T S: Present status of nationalinformation infrastructure development inIndia. J LibInfSci 1977,2(1)'p.3.

114

[ 11] Rajagopalan T S, Deo M S, Mukherji, Somaand TripathiG N: Coverage of Indian docu-ments on agriculture in three bibliographicalperiodicals. Doc urnereat ion Research & Train-ing Centre, Seminar No. I, on DocumentationPeriodicals: Coverage, arrangement, scatter,seepage, compilation. Bangalore. 1963, p. qS

[12] Rajagopalan T S, Rama swa rnt K: Librariesserving the CSIR complex. Delhi. Ind ianNational Scientific Documentation Centre.1970.

[13] Ra ja gopa Ian T S, Sen B K, Roy S, UpadhyayaP D: Reporting of Indian agricultural litera-ture in some CAB abstracting services. AnnLib Sc i Doc 1965, 12(2), p, 20.

[14] Saxena T P: Paper presented at ICAR-PAUSeminar on Agricultural Librarianship andDocumentation, 2 -5 February, 1q 77.

[ IS] Sherrod J: Role of NAL in the developingworld information systems. ltl AllsociacionInte rarne r icana de Bibliotacarloll y Docu-mentalistas Agricolas, Tercera rounion,Buenos Aires, Aprll 1972 [Quoted in CoblansH: Librarianship and coumentation: AnInternational perspective 1974. London.Andre' Deu tah, p .87].

[16] Viloria R V: Agricultural Information Bankfor As ia : Its development and activities.Paper presented at the FID/CAO Conferenceand General As sem.bly held at Bangkok during11-13 Septernbe r , 1q76. qpp.

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AGRICULTURAL INFORMATION NETWORK IN INDIA

Abstracting and Indexing Services of interest to agr icul tu r al sc ientists and emanatingfrom institutes in India

Appendix

S.No. Title Sponsor and address Year of start Perlodicity

1. Advance Abstracts of contr i-butions of Fisheries andAquatic Sciences in India

2. Bibliography of IndianFisheries (FormerlyQuarterlv Bibliography ofCurrent Ind ian Referenceson Fisheries)

3. Bibliography on Irr igation.Drainage. River Training andFlood Control.

Central Marine FisheriesResearch Institute. MarineFisheries P.O .• MandapamCamp. Tamil Nadu.

Central Inland FisheriesResearch Institute (ICAR).Barrackpore.24 Parp;ana8. West Be ngal ,

Inte rnational Comm is s ion onIrrigation and Drainage. CentralOffice, 48 Nyaya 'v1arg;Chanakyapuri, New De lhi c Zl .

Bulletin of India Raw Materials Publications and Informationand their Utilization Directorate. Hills ide Road.

Ser.A :--Current LiteraturE on- New Delhi-12.Raw Materials ot herAromatic Plants

Ser. B - Current LiteraturE onRaw Materials otherthan Med ic inal &.Aromatic Plants.

4.

5. Documentation on DairySc ience

6. F AI Abstracts Serv ice.

7. Fertilizer TechnologyAbstracts

8. Food Technology Abstracts

9. Indian Agricultural Index

10. Indian Be hav iour alScience Abstracts.

11. Indian Science Abstracts

12. Irrigation and Power Abstracts(F orrnerly IAbstracts, CentralBoard of Irrigation and Power)

13. Theses Abstracts

National Dairy ResearchInstitute. IC.AR. Karnal-l.

Fertilizer Association of India.Near Jawaharlal Nehru Uni-versity. New Delhi-57.

Planning and Development Divi-s ion. F ertil izer Corporation ofIndia. Sindhri. Bihar.Central Food TechnologicalResearch Institute, Mv s or-e.

G. B. Pant Univers itv of Agri-culture &. Technology,Pantnagar, Nainital.

Behavioural Science Centre,2 Subhash Marg, Delh i.

Indian National Scientific Docu-mentation Centre.New Delhi-12

Central Board of Irrigation &.Power. Kasturba Gandhi Marg,New Delhi-l.

Publishing and T ranslat ionDivision. Haryana AgriculturalUniversity, Hissar.

1967 - 1970

1962

1958

1974

1970

1968

1963

1966

1969 (Temporarilysuspended)

1970

1965

1943

1970

4/12

4/12

1/12

4/12

4/12

12/12

12/ 12

12/12

12/12

4/12

12/12

6/12

4/l2

Vol 25 No 1-4 Mar-Dee 1978 115

SURENDAR MOHAN

Organization

APPENDIX 2

AGRICULTURALINFORMATIONNEll/ORK

PAU, Ludhiana

G.B.Pant Univ of Agra & Tech,Pant Hagar"\'" o-l-_APAU, Hyderabad

UAS, BangaloreMPKV. Ahmednaga r

RAU, Samastipur

GAU, Ahmedabadssam Agri. Univ.,

__ .dorbe t , etc.

CFTRI,

CIMI'(), lucknowNBG, lucknow

PID, Delhi

8S1

G51

ZSI

Corporations &Associations L.... __ ---""

116

C'ent. Arid Zone Res. Inst. ,JodhpUrCent., Potato Res. Inst. ,Simla

Cent.R~c. Res.lnst. ,CuUack

Cent.Gar~nd & Fodder Res.Inst., GweN tor

Jute Text R.". lab., Calcutta

Indian lac Res. Inst., Ranch!ent. Inland Fisheries Res.Institute, Barrac;1<pur, etc.

Ann Lib Sci Doc