The XXXIII Research Advisory Committee Meeting (RAC) of ICAR-CRIDA was held on 28th -29th April 2025 in a physical mode at ICAR-CRIDA under the chairmanship of Dr Trilochan Mohapatra, Chairperson of PPV& FRA, Former Secretary (DARE) & Former Director General, ICAR. Dr V.K. Singh, Director, ICAR-CRIDA welcomed the chair, and members of RAC and mentioned the key importance of RAC for the overall improvement of the institute's research programme. All the scientists of the institute and non-official member participated in the session. The RAC deliberations commenced with remarks by chairman of RAC.

Dr M Srinivasa Rao, Member secretary presented the Action Taken Report (ATR) on the recommendations of the previous meeting of RAC (XXXII) and the same was accepted by the Research Advisory Committee.

Dr V.K. Singh, Director, ICAR-CRIDA presented the contributions of CRIDA in Dryland agriculture and explained about recent national outputs of the institute and overview of CRIDA.

Dr J.P. Sharma, Ex-Vice-chancellor, SKUAST opined that out scaling and upscaling the technologies with the support of state departments and KVKs should be the focus to reach the farmers nationwide.

Dr H.N. Verma, Ex-Director, IIWM, Bhubaneswar, suggested that renovation of community ponds for the small and marginal farmers would offer pragmatic approach for the water cycling.

Dr A.M. Shekh, Ex-vice chancellor, AAU mentioned that assessment and quantification of microclimate for the pest and disease forewarning should be addressed.

Dr D.K. Sharma, former director of, CSSRI reiterated that understanding and refining the technologies from farmers’ perspective can make them more viable.

Dr. A. Velmurugan, ADG (SWM) & (AAF & CC) emphasised the importance of comprehensive impact analysis of dryland technologies and suggested the documentation of success stories.

Dr T. Mohapatra advised that digitalisation of database and technologies emanated from the institute which can be of immense help in retrieval and in impact analysis. Focus on adoption of AI and ML tools in decision making should be the priority to deal with the effects of climate change.

Shri Ch.E. Prasad Reddy and Shri V. Chandra Sekhar, non-official members of RAC, also participated in the meeting.

At the outset, the Chairman of RAC appreciated the contributions of ICAR-CRIDA, AICRPDA and AICRPAM and emphasised the focussed Dryland research in view of changing climate and emerging problems in Dryland agriculture. The progress in five key theme areas of the institute were presented by theme leaders. The programme was continued on the second day i.e., on 29-04-2025. After a thorough discussion, various observations and recommendations were emanated.