The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) on Tuesday began the online counselling for undergraduate agriculture courses for academic sessions 2025-26, nearly two months after the National Testing Agency (NTA) declared CUET-UG 2025 results on July 4. Successful candidates who have appeared in CUET-UG 2025 in the domain subject of physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics and agriculture or iInter-agriculture are eligible for admission to 13 agriculture and allied sciences degree programs under the ICAR All India Quota (AIQ) seats. ICAR has announced that its counseling portal will be open from September 2 to 8 for registration and consent-based merit ranking, which will be prepared on the basis of CUET-UG scores.
“The ICAR ranked candidates only will be allowed to submit their program, university preferences and payment of fee for the counseling and admission in agriculture and allied subjects,” ICAR said in a notice issued on Monday. HT on August 27 reported that the delay in ICAR counselling left thousands of aspirants anxious about losing an academic year and falling behind peers who have already secured admission through state-level counsellings. Teachers at agricultural universities warned that the prolonged admission process will shorten the academic calendar, reducing time for classroom teaching as well as practical exposure
ICAR will use Common University Entrance Test-Undergraduate (CUET-UG) 2025 scores for admission to various four-year undergraduate programs in agriculture and allied sciences (excluding veterinary) including B.Sc. (Hons.) Agriculture, B.Sc. (Hons.) Horticulture, B.F.Sc. Fisheries, B.Sc. (Hons.) agribusiness management, and B.Tech. courses in Agricultural Engineering, Dairy Technology, Food Technology, and Biotechnology.
Through its counselling, ICAR will fill 20% All India Quota (AIQ) seats in 63 State Agricultural Universities (SAUs). It will also fill 100% seats in central agricultural universities, which include Rani Lakshmi Bai Central Agricultural University (RLBCAU) in Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh; Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University (RPCAU), Samastipur, Bihar; ICAR–National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI) in Karnal, Haryana; and the ICAR–Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) campuses in Jharkhand and Assam. ICAR counselling also covers AIQ seats in four Central Universities with agriculture faculties — Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh (15%), Aligarh Muslim University in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh (5%), Visva-Bharati University in Santiniketan, West Bengal (15%), and Nagaland University in Medziphema, Nagaland (20%).
In the bulletin, ICAR has listed 7,325 AIQ seats across various subjects, with the highest in B.F.Sc. fisheries (2,159 seats) and the lowest in B.Sc. (Hons.) sericulture (17 seats). Last year, ICAR opened counselling registration on August 7, just 10 days after CUET-UG 2024 results were declared on July 28, for 5,842 AIQ seats.
