The Indian Council of Agricultural Research is an apex organization at the national level for promoting Science and Technology Programmes in the agricultural research and education. The ICAR was set up on 16 July 1929, as the Registered Society under the Societies Registration Act 1860, on the recommendations of the Royal Commission of Agriculture. It was reorganized twice, in 1965 and 1973. The headquarters of the ICAR is located at Krishi Bhavan, New Delhi, and its other buildings are Krishi Anusandhan Bhavan I and II, and NASC Complex, New Delhi.

The Union Minister of Agriculture is the President of the ICAR. The Principal Executive Officer of the ICAR is the Director-General, who is also the Secretary to the Government of India in the Department of Agricultural Research and Education. The General Body of the ICAR Society is the supreme authority of the ICAR, and the Minister for Agriculture, Government of India, heads it. Its members are the Ministers for Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries, and the Senior Officers of the various state governments, representatives of Parliament, industry, education institutes, scientific organization and farmers

The Governing Body  is the chief executive and decision-making authority of the ICAR. It is headed by the Director-General. It consists of eminent agricultural scientists, educationists, legislators and representatives of the farmers. It is assisted by the Standing Finance Committee, National Agricultural Education Accreditation Board, Regional Committee, Policy and Planning Committee, several Scientific Panels, and Publications Committee. In the scientific matters, the Director- General is assisted by 8 Deputy Directors-General, one each for (i) Crop Sciences, (ii) Horticulture, (iii) Natural Resource Management, (iv) Agricultural Engineering, (v) Animal Sciences, (vi) Fisheries, (vii) Agricultural Education, and (viii) Agricultural Extension. The DDGs are responsible for the Institutes, National Research Centres, and the Projects Directorates belonging to their respective fields.

Total number of employees in the ICAR and its Research Institutes and number of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes