ICMR and ICAR launch SEHAT initiative to link agriculture with public health

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) jointly launched the SEHAT initiative — Science Excellen...

What Happened

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) jointly launched the SEHAT initiative — Science Excellence for Health through Agricultural Transformation.
SEHAT is a joint national mission aimed at linking agriculture with improved nutrition, disease prevention, farmer welfare, and science-based policy-making.
The initiative was unveiled at a high-level event attended by Union Ministers for Health and Agriculture, underscoring its cross-ministerial character.
SEHAT prioritises five strategic pillars: nutritional quality improvement, reduction of hidden hunger and micronutrient deficiencies, prevention of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), farmer health and safety, and promotion of sustainable food systems.
The mission explicitly promotes organic and sustainable farming practices as contributors to both environmental and human health — directly engaging with India's dual burden of malnutrition and rising NCDs.
Traditional knowledge integration and indigenous crop varieties are embedded as components of the mission's scientific approach.

Static Topic Bridges

ICMR: India's Apex Biomedical Research Body

The Indian Council of Medical Research is the apex institution in India for the formulation, coordination, and promotion of biomedical research. ICMR traces its origins to the Indian Research Fund Association (IRFA) established in 1911, and was reconstituted and renamed ICMR in 1949 with an expanded mandate.

Governing body: ICMR is an autonomous body under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
Funding: Primarily through the Union Budget via the Ministry of Health.
Mandate: Biomedical and health research; disease surveillance; clinical trials; vaccine and drug development.
Key contributions: COVID-19 diagnostics (RT-PCR kit), Covaxin development (with Bharat Biotech), NFHS (National Family Health Survey coordination), and TB/malaria programme research.
Headquarters: New Delhi; operates 26 national institutes and 6 regional medical research centres.
ICMR is not a statutory body in the sense of having its own parliamentary Act — it functions under a Memorandum of Association and its governing council is appointed by the Government of India.

Connection to this news: ICMR's engagement in SEHAT extends its mandate from curative and infectious disease research into preventive health through the agricultural-nutritional linkage — a recognition that food systems are a primary determinant of health outcomes.

ICAR: India's Agricultural Research System

The Indian Council of Agricultural Research is an autonomous organisation under the Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE), which is a department within the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare. ICAR functions under the Union Ministry but is not itself a statutory body in the traditional legislative sense — it was established by an Act of the then British India government in 1929 (as the Imperial Council of Agricultural Research) and reconstituted post-independence.

Parent department: DARE, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare.
Network: 113 ICAR institutes and 73 agricultural universities under its aegis — the world's largest national agricultural research system.
Mandate: Plan, undertake, coordinate, and promote education and research in agriculture, animal husbandry, fisheries, and allied sciences.
Key achievements: Green Revolution varieties (IR8, HYV wheat); development of climate-resilient crop varieties under NICRA (National Innovations in Climate Resilient Agriculture).
Budget: DARE's total budget approximately ₹9,000–10,000 crore annually.

Connection to this news: ICAR's participation in SEHAT brings its network of 113 institutes to bear on the nutritional composition and farming practice dimensions of public health — a scale that no single institution could achieve.

The One Health Framework

"One Health" is a multi-sectoral, transdisciplinary approach recognising that the health of humans, animals, and the environment are interconnected and interdependent. The concept gained global traction after the H5N1 avian influenza outbreak (2003-04) and was institutionalised by the WHO, FAO, and the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH, formerly OIE).

WHO One Health definition (2021): An integrated, unifying approach that aims to sustainably balance and optimise the health of people, animals and ecosystems, recognising that health of all three is closely linked and interdependent.
India's One Health journey:
2008: Roadmap to Combat Zoonoses in India launched.
G20 2023 (India Presidency): One Health included in the Delhi Declaration.
2023: Centre for One Health established at the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Delhi.
ICMR–ICAR collaboration on a National Institute of One Health has been under discussion.
Relevance to zoonotic diseases: India faces significant zoonotic disease burden — Nipah, avian influenza, brucellosis, rabies, leptospirosis. One Health integrates animal surveillance, environmental monitoring, and human health systems.
Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) is a key One Health concern: overuse of antibiotics in livestock contributes directly to resistance in human pathogens.

Connection to this news: SEHAT operationalises the One Health vision by linking two apex research institutions — ICMR (human health) and ICAR (agriculture/animal health) — in a structured national mission, institutionalising the cross-sectoral collaboration that One Health requires.

Organic Farming Policy: PKVY and NPOP

India's organic farming policy framework rests on two main pillars:

Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY): Launched in 2015 under the National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA), PKVY promotes organic farming through a cluster approach (50-acre clusters of 50 farmers). Financial support: ₹31,500/hectare over 3 years (direct farmer support ₹15,000/ha; rest for certification, marketing, infrastructure).

National Programme for Organic Production (NPOP): India's accreditation and certification framework for organic products, maintained by APEDA (Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority) under the Ministry of Commerce. NPOP standards are internationally recognised and equivalence agreements exist with the EU and Switzerland, enabling Indian organic products to enter those markets without re-certification.

PKVY scale (as of 2025): ~25.30 lakh farmers covered; 52,289 clusters; ~15 lakh ha under organic farming.
Two certification systems under PKVY: NPOP (third-party, for international markets) and PGS-India (Participatory Guarantee System, community-based, for domestic markets).
Large Area Certification (LAC) programme (from 2020-21): Fast-tracks certification in regions never exposed to chemical farming (tribal/island areas).
Mission Organic Value Chain Development for North East India (MOVCDNER): Parallel scheme for NE states.

Connection to this news: SEHAT's call for promoting organic and sustainable farming practices is backed by an existing policy scaffolding — PKVY, NPOP, and MOVCDNER. The ICMR–ICAR partnership can generate scientific evidence (nutritional studies, soil microbiome research, pesticide residue data) to strengthen the evidence base for these policies and justify further scale-up.

Key Facts & Data

SEHAT: Science Excellence for Health through Agricultural Transformation — joint ICMR-ICAR national mission.
Five pillars: Nutritional quality, hidden hunger/micronutrient deficiency, NCD prevention, farmer health, sustainable food systems.
ICMR: Autonomous body under Ministry of Health; 26 institutes; apex biomedical research body since 1949.
ICAR: Autonomous under DARE, Ministry of Agriculture; 113 institutes; established 1929.
One Health (WHO 2021): Integrated approach linking human, animal, and ecosystem health.
India One Health: G20 Delhi Declaration (2023); Centre for One Health at NCDC (2023).
PKVY (2015): ₹31,500/ha over 3 years; 25.30 lakh farmers; 52,289 clusters; 15 lakh ha.
NPOP: India's organic certification standard; EU and Switzerland equivalence agreements.
India's organic farming area: ~4.3 million ha total (including in-conversion) — largest in South Asia.
AMR (Antimicrobial Resistance): Key One Health concern linking livestock antibiotic use to human health.