The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has instructed agricultural universities to include agriculture as a mandatory eligibility subject for admission to B.Sc. (Hons) in agriculture and allied undergraduate courses via online counselling based on scores of candidates in the Common University Entrance Test–Undergraduate (CUET-UG) 2025.
ICAR has asked 74 agricultural universities to take remedial steps after students raised concerns about the ICAR-UG counselling brochure for 2025. The document by ICAR stated that 27 universities had excluded students from the Agriculture-Biology-Chemistry stream from admission to B.Sc. (Hons) in agriculture, 19 had done so for horticulture, and 14 for forestry. Notably, ICAR regulates education in agriculture and allied fields.
What did the deputy director general of ICAR state in the letter?
In a letter ahead of online counselling, ICAR deputy director general (education) JK Jena stated that several agricultural universities are not giving importance to candidates with agriculture or inter-agriculture as a subject in Class 12.
Moreover, in a letter dated September 23, he stated: “the inclusiveness of candidates from the states offering agriculture or inter-agriculture in the 12th standard needs to be considered in the national interest. Therefore, kindly take up the issue and ensure corrective steps in this direction without disturbing the state welfare and creating unnecessary legal hurdles.”
Furthermore, Jena expressed optimism in the letter, implying that universities will include agriculture and inter-agriculture as an eligibility subject from this academic session 2025-26. Moreover, students seeking UG admissions have appealed to the ICAR to issue an official notification that would confirm agriculture as an eligibility subject.