Agricultural Research Centre (Narc)

Director’s Report

Social Sciences Institute (SSI), located at National Agricultural Research Centre (NARC), is the field research wing of Social Sciences Division of Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC). PARC is the country’s lead federal agricultural research organization which is responsible to steer the National Agricultural Research System (NARS) through strengthening and coordinating its various components. Being the prime institution of agricultural research, the main focus of the council is to undertake and promote research in those areas which do not fall under the priority research programmes of other components of the NARS. PARC perform such role through its research establishments located in different agro-ecological zones of Pakistan. NARC constitutes one of the largest research establishments located at Islamabad. SSI was established in July 1990 as an important component of NARC Master Research Plan with a specific mandate to ensure the active participation of multi-disciplinary teams of scientists from social, biological, natural resources and farm machinery disciplines to conduct priority research for the NARS. SSI operates through several research programs involving sister research institutions, development agencies, NGOs and other stakeholders. In the past, the achievements of SSI have regularly been incorporated in the annual reports of PARC and NARC. As we are reporting our annual (2003-2004) activities for the first time it will be in order to explain briefly the mandate of SSI and its three components. The mandate of the SSI is as under:

Mandate
• undertake research on different priority problems of national and regional importance in the disciplines of agricultural social sciences;
• provide research back-up to the biological scientists working on different crops and livestock;
• develop and strengthen linkages with research and extension for technology transfer;
• extend consultancy/advisory services to the biological...