ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the evolution of agricultural research in India, using an institutional economics framework that focuses on the rules and norms that govern the organization and conduct of science. It discusses the origin and evolution of agricultural science in the colonial era, driven by commercial interests and also a desire for the advancement of knowledge. The chapter argues that the transmutation of the state–science relationship was not significant in the 1950s, though the state itself had changed from a colonial regime to an independent sovereign state. The history of agricultural science glosses over the fact that state-sponsored scientific research existed in India and other colonies long before it did in Europe. In effect, the utilitarianism of the colonial era characterizes agricultural science till date. Multiple models of research and education organizations marked the 1950s. India’s agricultural research system was reorganized in 1966.
