About IISS

The Indian Institute of Soil Science (ICAR-IISS) was established on 16th April, 1988 at Bhopal with a mandate of “Enhancing Soil Productivity with Minimum Environmental Degradation”. To accomplish the mandate of the institute, it has given the priority to soil health related issues faced by farmers and other stakeholders.

IISS has emerged as a leader in basic and strategic research on soils in the country. It has achieved significant success in the areas of integrated nutrient management, impact on soil under long-term cropping, technology for preparation of enriched composts, soil test based nutrient prescriptions, generation of district-wise GIS based soil fertility maps, organic farming practices, carbon sequestration in soils, sink capacity of soils for heavy metal pollutants, recycling of wastes, soil microbial diversity and biofertilizers, quality standards for municipal solid waste composts etc. The institute has to take up the emerging challenges of increasing food-grain production and ensuring food and nutritional security from shrinking land resources, characterizing and conserving large soil-biodiversity for appropriate deployment in agriculture, achieving self reliance in crop fertilization through indigenous mineral and by-product sources, developing efficient technologies for waste recycling, maintaining soil quality and ecological balance, and developing energy efficient agriculture and sequestering carbon by reorienting it's research pursuits addressing the emerging issues viz., enhancing nutrient and water use efficiency; sustaining soil and produce quality; soil biodiversity and genomics, climate change and carbon sequestration; minimizing soil pollution etc.

Location

The Institute is about 10 Km and 7 Km away from Bhopal railway station and Bhopal Airport respectively.

Organisational Setup

Director is the overall in charge of the institute and is responsible to the DDG, NRM and the DG, ICAR, New Delhi. At Institute level Director is assisted by Heads of Divisions, Coordinators, Principal Scientists, Senior Scientists and Scientists in technical matters and by the Administrative officer and Finance & Accounts officer in administrative matters. All Four India Coordinating Research Projects (AICRPs)on soil and related aspects are functioning with their coordinating units at the institute to help in fulfilling its mandate and strengthening it to provide a pathguiding role in Soil Science Research in the country.