The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has announced the date for PG counselling 2026. According to a public notice dated September 25, counselling for admission to Postgraduate programmes, excluding the Veterinary stream, under the ICAR All India Quota (AIQ) will begin on September 29, 2026. The same counselling notice also covers PhD programmes across all streams, including Veterinary.
ICAR has advised prospective candidates to keep their documents, testimonials and certificates ready for the counselling process. The announcement is also available on the official ICAR website.
The September 25 notice confirms the starting date, but does not provide the complete round-wise schedule in the notice itself. Candidates should therefore wait for the detailed counselling instructions, seat matrix, registration and choice-filling schedule on the ICAR counselling portal.
The ICAR AIEEA-PG 2026 information bulletin states that candidates declared eligible by ICAR for registration and choice filling will be considered for allocation of a subject and Agricultural University.
The previous year's AIEEA-PG 2025 cutoff document shows considerable variation in closing marks depending on the course, university, category and candidate's overall/subject-wise rank. Therefore, there is no single ICAR PG cutoff that can be used for all programmes.
For example, in the first round of AIEEA-PG 2025:
| Course | University | Category | Cutoff marks | Overall rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bio-Chemistry | ICAR-IARI, Pusa | UR | 289 | 8 |
| Molecular Biology & Biotechnology | ICAR-IARI, Pusa | UR | 316 | 4 |
| Molecular Biology & Biotechnology | Acharya N G Ranga Agricultural University | UR | 213 | 63 |
| Molecular Biology & Biotechnology | Kerala Agricultural University | UR | 205 | 73 |
| Genetics & Plant Breeding | ICAR-IARI Ranchi Hub | UR | 375 | 12 |
| Genetics & Plant Breeding | UAS GKVK, Bengaluru | OBC | 363 | 30 |
| Soil Science | Punjab Agricultural University | UR | 361 | 14 |
| Soil Science | Professor Jayashankar Agricultural University | UR | 355 | 20 |
| Plant Pathology | ICAR-IARI, Pusa | EWS | 356 | 43 |
| Entomology | UAS GKVK, Bengaluru | OBC | 320 | 13 |
The previous year's cutoff can be useful as a reference point, but it should not be treated as the expected 2026 cutoff.
The 2025 data show that even within the same discipline, closing marks differed significantly between universities and categories. For instance, Molecular Biology and Biotechnology had a first-round UR cutoff of 316 marks at IARI Pusa, compared with 205 marks at Kerala Agricultural University in the cited entries.
Similarly, Soil Science had a UR cutoff of 361 at Punjab Agricultural University, while the corresponding figure at Professor Jayashankar Agricultural University was 355 in the 2025 first-round data.
This means candidates should compare their AIEEA-PG 2026 rank and marks with the previous year's course- and university-specific cutoffs, rather than relying on a single overall number.