The Division of Agricultural Economics, a constituent of the School of Social Sciences of Indian Council of Agricultural Research-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, was established in 1960. The mandate of the Division is to conduct research in frontier areas and serve as a center for academic excellence in post-graduate education. Since its inception, the Division has been making contributions in basic and applied research with significant implications for agricultural policy. The Division has achieved excellence in post-graduate education and research as an ICAR-UNDP Centre of Excellence through a faculty exchange program for human resources development and strengthening of infrastructure facilities. Since 1995 it has been functioning as an ICAR Centre of Advanced Faculty Training (CAFT) to strengthen the capacity for agricultural economics and policy research in the national agricultural research system. Since then, the division has conducted 34 training programs for early stage researchers in the National Agricultural Research System. The trainings have covered variety of contemporary topics in agricultural economics, with a special focus on empowering the trainees with methodological advances in the field. So far, 657 Researchers have benefited from the CAFT program.

The research contributions of the Division have been globally recognized and many of the alumni occupy positions of repute in national and international organizations. The Division has maintained good academic liaison with other divisions at IARI and other national and international agricultural research institutions The research focus of the Division has been continuously reoriented to address contemporary development challenges. The early research of the Division focused on farm business analysis, efficient allocation of resources, supply response, input demand analysis, and marketing efficiency. To address the challenges and opportunities of the Green Revolution, research on capital formation, labor employment, farm mechanization, rural credit needs, yield gap analysis, price policy and subsidy issues, and efficient management of natural resources was undertaken. However, keeping pace with the changes in agricultural landscape in the country and the world, the research areas are reoriented from time to time. Current research thrust areas of the division include.