Improvement work on vegetables started at IARI, New Delhi with the establishment of a small section of Vegetables in the erstwhile Division of Botany in the year 1940 which later became a part of the Division of Horticulture after its establishment in 1956 with the main objective to conduct research in all the major horticultural crops including vegetables and to impart post-graduate teaching. The research work was strengthened further with the creation of Division of Vegetable Crops and Floriculture in 1970. In 1982, Floriculture was separated and the Division of Vegetable Crops started functioning independently. The Division was renamed as Vegetable Science in 2004. The mandate of the Division are: