Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) implements ICAR National Fellowship through the Agricultural Education Division of ICAR. The National Fellow scheme is to promote excellence in agricultural research and education at national level, to recognize meritorious contribution of individual agricultural scientists/teachers, and to facilitate their research and related activities in agriculture.

The ICAR National Fellow Project on “Development and implementation of Novel Algorithms and Software Modules for PGR Informatics” was commissioned in 2014.

An effective PGR Informatics can only be built upon sound scientific grounds which go beyond computer expertise to encompass genetic, taxonomic, geoinformatic, bioinformatic and genomic linkages. A user-centric approach is needed that includes:

• Growth- through richer content and metadata especially field genebanks, horticultural genetic resources and farmers’ efforts
• Scalability- through established architecture and decentralized services
• Capacity- through development of appropriate tools, products and services
• Visibility- through development of a powerful and user-friendly data portal, nodes, thematic portals and rich internet applications

Above-mentioned developments are not possible without laying down data standards, developing/improving algorithms and modules. These in turn can’t be developed without creating sufficient knowledge body based on basic research in PGR Informatics. ICAR-NBPGR is the nodal organization for PGR management in NARS. By implementing the proposed project at ICAR-NBPGR, nucleus of research in the field of PGR Informatics was created facilitating an environment of application development.

The Project intended to achieve (i) Development of data standards and algorithms for PGR informatics; (ii) Development of algorithms and modules for PGR analytics and bioinformatics; and (iii) Development of algorithms and modules for user-centric approach to PGR informatics to encompass genetic, genomic, taxonomic, geoinformatic, bioinformatics, etc. linkages with genebank information.

Success of this ICAR-NF Project depended not upon the modules and algorithms visualized, but on their actual implementation in the form of development of user friendly applications in the area of PGR Informatics.

During the period 2014-2019, the National Fellow Project on PGR Informatics has successfully developed original and unique applications that are first of their kind across all genebanks in the world.