ICAR All India Entrance Examination for Admission (Postgraduate) – AIEEA (PG)(ICAR AIEEA PG)

About the exam

About ICAR AIEEA PG

ICAR AIEEA PG is the national entrance for master's degrees in agriculture, veterinary science, fisheries, dairy, horticulture and the other allied sciences, and two bodies run it in sequence. The National Testing Agency registers candidates, conducts the computer-based paper and declares results; the Indian Council of Agricultural Research then ranks candidates within their subject group and allots a university through its own online counselling.

For the 2026 cycle the NTA half is complete, with score cards out since 29 August 2026. The ICAR half, counselling, is announced separately after the result, and ICAR's counselling portal has yet to post a master's schedule.

Since 2019 the conduct of this master's test has been NTA's job, entrusted by ICAR together with the doctoral AICE-JRF/SRF (Ph.D.) examination, as the NTA ICAR AIEEA (PG) portal states. The portal carries a separate information bulletin for each of the two tests.

The exam fills only part of the master's intake. Through it ICAR fills 30% of master's seats at agricultural universities in general, but every master's seat at IARI, IVRI, NDRI and CIFE, its four deemed universities, and at RLBCAU Jhansi and Dr. RPCAU Pusa, according to the ICAR AIEEA (PG) 2026 Information Bulletin. The bulletin also limits candidates from any one state to 40% of admissions in a university for a particular subject and category, and says ICAR has no provision to nominate anyone into a master's programme without qualifying in the exam.

For master's seats, the 2026 route is this dedicated test, not a CUET score. The ICAR Public Notice on Counselling 2026, dated 11 June 2026 builds undergraduate All India Quota counselling on CUET (UG) 2026 scores, but says counselling for PG and Ph.D. candidates opens after NTA declares the result of their respective entrance examinations.

NTA's press release on the 2026 results puts registrations for AIEEA (PG) 2026 at 30,619, the same figure its public notice of 16 August 2026 on provisional answer keys gave for the test.

At a glance

ICAR AIEEA PG highlights

Calendar

Important dates

Two dates printed in the 2026 bulletin were later changed by NTA public notices, so the table gives the final 2026 position and names the document behind each row.

The NTA notice of 7 June 2026 extending the last date gives requests from ICAR and from aspiring candidates as the reason. Under the NTA notice of 12 June 2026 on corrections, the correction could be made once only, after which the form was frozen, and mobile number, email address, candidate's name, father's and mother's names, date of birth and gender could not be changed at all.

Who can apply

Eligibility criteria

The 2026 bulletin opens the examination to Indian nationals and judges eligibility on the bachelor's degree: its field, its length and its grade, according to the ICAR AIEEA (PG) 2026 Information Bulletin. It recognises these routes:

• A four-year or six-year agricultural bachelor's degree (12+4 or 10+6, such as B.Sc. Ag. or B.Tech.), or a B.V.Sc. & A.H. of five or five and a half years.
• Candidates still completing the degree, provided every degree requirement is met by 31.07.2026; anyone without the degree or a provisional degree certificate then needs a Registrar's certificate stating the final OGPA or marks.
• Veterinary stream candidates, whose completion date is 15.01.2027, internship and viva-voce included.
• Three-year B.Sc. graduates, only for a few courses at the ICAR deemed universities under their own alternate eligibility. The 2026 bulletin is inconsistent on which: one clause names IARI, IVRI and NDRI, while the note under the subject table names only IARI and NDRI.
• In-service staff of ICAR institutes, agricultural universities, agriculture departments or agricultural PSUs. Their rank has to fall within the subject's overall merit list, and counselling asks for a declaration signed by the employer.
• Students part-way through a master's degree, as long as they are less than a year into it on the day of the examination; they can start afresh and are in contention for the ICAR-PG Scholarship too.

The same bulletin sets the grade floor by category, as an OGPA (with equivalents given for other grading scales) or, where only marks are awarded, a percentage:

The 2026 bulletin accepts no conversion between OGPA and percentage and no rounding off, giving the example that 49.99% is not treated as 50%. Candidates must be at least 19 years old on 31 August 2026, with no relaxation.

Seats and ICAR-PG Scholarships are reserved to the extent of 15% for SC and 7.5% for ST candidates, with 5% held horizontally for PwBD candidates, under the 2026 bulletin. UPS in the grade table stands for the remote and underprivileged states and UTs it lists, from the Andaman & Nicobar Islands to Ladakh: their candidates get 2% of seats in each discipline, horizontally, and must show a domicile certificate at admission.

Subject eligibility is set degree by degree in the bulletin's subject table: at state and central agricultural universities the Veterinary Science and Animal Biotechnology sub-subjects take B.V.Sc. & A.H. graduates, Fisheries Science takes B.F.Sc. graduates, and the agricultural engineering sub-subjects also admit B.Tech. graduates in mechanical, civil, electrical or electronics engineering. Universities add their own conditions in the tentative seat tables; Acharya N G Ranga Agricultural University, for instance, sets an upper age limit of 40 years as on 1 July of the admission year, and Uttar Banga Krishi Viswavidyalaya a minimum age of 21 years for its M.Sc. courses.

Step by step

Application process and fee

The 2026 application ran only online, one form per candidate, in three steps: registration, the form itself with a live photograph and scanned images, and fee payment, per the ICAR AIEEA (PG) 2026 Information Bulletin. No university is chosen on the form: the candidate picks one major subject group compatible with the bachelor's stream, plus four exam cities, and universities come only at counselling. Beyond those images and a PwBD or category certificate where one applies, no certificates go up with the form; the admitting university checks documents at admission.

The examination fee for 2026 depended on category.

Payment went through SBI or Canara Bank, and the bulletin's payment annexure priced UPI at nil through both, while most card and net-banking routes added a transaction charge plus GST at 18%. NTA refunds no fee once paid, a category change during correction means paying the difference, and if no confirmation page appears after payment, the bulletin treats the form as not submitted.

Before the exam

Admit card and exam day

NTA posted the 2026 admit cards on 1 July, as its admit card page for ICAR PG records. The NTA notice of 1 July 2026 on admit cards scheduled AIEEA (PG) as the morning shift, 10:00 AM to 12:00 noon on 4 July 2026, with the Ph.D. test in the afternoon, and warned that an admit card is issued provisionally and does not mean eligibility has been accepted.

The registration desk closes 30 minutes before the examination begins, and no one enters after the gate-closing time on the admit card, according to the ICAR AIEEA (PG) 2026 Information Bulletin. Calculators are not permitted, rough work goes on sheets handed back at the end, and candidates must check that the subject on screen is the one on their admit card.

The bulletin carries two lists of what to bring, and they do not match. The list printed with the application instructions asks for the admit card with a self-declaration printed on A4, a transparent ball-point pen, two extra photographs and an original photo ID from a list that includes a college identity card, and it allows a personal transparent water bottle. Chapter 6 asks for one photograph, gives an ID list without the college card, and bars water except for diabetic candidates. A PAN card, driving licence, voter ID, passport or Aadhaar with photograph appears on both ID lists, and the admit card and exam-conduct chapters both send candidates to the instructions printed on the admit card itself.

PwBD candidates with a benchmark disability can use a scribe, NTA's or their own, and get compensatory time of not less than 20 minutes per hour of examination, per the 2026 bulletin, which also lists the unfair-means offences and penalties it applies under the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024.

Structure

Exam pattern

Each candidate sits one paper, in English only, in the major subject group chosen on the form, and the ICAR AIEEA (PG) 2026 Information Bulletin lists 20 major subject groups covering 81 sub-subjects for 2026. Choices among the sub-subjects inside the group a candidate qualifies in open only at counselling.

The 2026 bulletin also sets out what happens when a key changes after challenges. Where a question turns out to have more than one correct option, or its key is revised, only candidates whose answer is correct under the revised key get the marks; a question dropped for a technical error gives full marks to every candidate, attempted or not. Ties are broken in a fixed order: the candidate with fewer negative marks ranks higher, then the older candidate, then the one with the higher Class XII percentage or CGPA.

What to study

Syllabus

ICAR prescribes the syllabus, and the 2026 bulletin points to ICAR's syllabus page for AIEEA (PG) and AICE (JRF/SRF), which carries separate PDFs for the master's and Ph.D. tests. The AIEEA (PG) syllabus PDF is organised by major subject group code, each broken into numbered units.

The groups are not built alike. Plant Biotechnology, Plant Sciences, Entomology and Nematology, Agronomy, Social Sciences and Horticulture each open with a general unit that begins with the importance of agriculture in the national economy and the basic principles of crop production. Agricultural Engineering and Technology starts instead from elementary statistics, probability, calculus and linear algebra. Agri-Business Management adds aptitude units on quantitative ability, English comprehension, data interpretation and logical reasoning alongside managerial economics and agricultural marketing.

How to prepare

Preparation and books

The ICAR AIEEA (PG) 2026 Information Bulletin names no textbook or reading list; the preparation document it points to is ICAR's group-wise syllabus. Its stream table comes first in practice, because the major subject group a candidate prepares for has to be compatible with the bachelor's stream.

For 2026, NTA put up the question papers with each candidate's recorded responses alongside the provisional keys, reached by logging in with the application number and password, according to its public notice of 16 August 2026 on provisional answer keys.

Where it is held

Exam centres

The 2026 bulletin listed 122 exam cities, from Port Blair and Leh to Kavaratti, and asked each candidate to choose four, according to the ICAR AIEEA (PG) 2026 Information Bulletin. NTA may still allot a centre in another city, including a nearby one, or cancel and merge cities, and the bulletin says a city once opted will not be changed.

In the event, NTA held the 4 July 2026 sitting of AIEEA (PG) and the Ph.D. test in about 162 centres located in 115 cities, according to its public notice of 16 August 2026 on provisional answer keys. The city intimation slip went up on 25 June 2026 on the NTA advance city intimation page for ICAR PG, and NTA's notice of 25 June 2026 on exam cities stressed that the slip is not the admit card.

After the exam

Answer key

For 2026, provisional answer keys and question papers with recorded responses were open for challenges from 16 August to 18 August 2026 (11:59 PM), at Rs 200 per question challenged as a non-refundable processing fee, per NTA's public notice of 16 August 2026 on provisional answer keys. The notice lets candidates upload supporting documents as a single PDF, has a panel of subject experts verify each challenge, and says no candidate is told individually whether a challenge was accepted.

Final answer keys followed on 29 August 2026 behind the candidate login, as NTA's final answer keys page for ICAR PG records. The 2026 bulletin rules out re-checking or re-evaluation after results, on the ground that candidates already had the recorded responses and the challenge window.

Scores

Result and scorecard

NTA published the ICAR 2026 score cards for PG on 29 August 2026, according to its ICAR 2026 score card page for PG. NTA's press release of 29 August 2026 on the results adds that NTA's responsibility ends at declaring the result and passing it to ICAR, and that eligibility, self-declarations and documents are verified at later stages by the norms of ICAR or the admitting institution.

The result is a rank, not an admission. The ICAR AIEEA (PG) 2026 Information Bulletin has ICAR prepare the overall merit list separately for every major subject, sends no separate intimation to candidates who are not selected, and keeps NTA's record of the examination for 90 days after the result. Disputes over the conduct of the test or its result fall under Delhi's courts, and a legal challenge is entertained only if it comes within 30 days of the result.

Scores you need

Cutoff

The 2026 bulletin prints no pass mark; it leaves ICAR to declare which candidates are eligible for registration and choice filling at counselling. In the last completed cycle, the ICAR AIEEA (PG) 2025 Online Counselling Brochure kept out of counselling anyone who scored zero or negative marks.

What the ICAR counselling portal files under its "Cut Off - 2025" menu is a record of allotments. The AIEEA-PG-2025 counselling cut-off document runs round by round from the first to the mop-up, giving for each domicile state, sub-subject, university and category the opening and closing marks and major-subject ranks, and veterinary disciplines have a separate AIEEA-PG-2025 veterinary cut-off document. That menu holds no 2026 file, and a 2025 allotment is not a forecast for 2026.

Getting a seat

Counselling and seat allotment

ICAR, not NTA, runs master's counselling, online, on the counselling portal its Public Notice on Counselling 2026 names. The ICAR AIEEA (PG) 2026 Information Bulletin says the counselling schedule is notified separately after the result, that admission and the scholarship come only through that counselling, and that in-service candidates for seats reserved for them at the four ICAR deemed universities are counselled by each deemed university itself.

The portal's notifications list holds no AIEEA (PG) 2026 schedule, and its newest entry, dated 31 August 2026, is the undergraduate vacant-seat matrix after the mop-up round; on the portal's home page, the menu entries for an AIEEA-PG-2026 brochure, a veterinary one and the PG initial seat matrices lead to no document.

The last cycle ran on a different timetable. ICAR's online counselling schedule for 2025-26 put UG, PG outside the veterinary stream and Ph.D. through one process, opening registration on 14 October 2025 and closing seat acceptance fee deposits for its mop-up round on 14 November 2025. For 2026, undergraduate counselling has already run separately, in July and August, per the schedule on the portal's home page.

Final seat numbers are displayed only at counselling, the 2026 bulletin says; for academic year 2025-26 it records 4883 ICAR All India Quota seats across PG programmes.

Until a 2026 brochure appears, the latest complete PG counselling rules are the 2025 cycle's. The 2025 brochure for disciplines other than the veterinary stream set a non-refundable registration fee of Rs 500 and a seat acceptance fee of Rs 10,000 for every category, adjusted later against the university's admission fee. It provided for four rounds plus a mop-up round if needed, allowed upgradation in the first three rounds only, and forfeited the earlier seat when an upgrade came through. Withdrawal up to the end of the fourth round was refunded after a processing deduction of Rs 1,000.

That brochure also moved document checks online: the allotted university verified uploaded documents and could raise one query, and candidates did not report physically during any round. ICAR allotted universities rather than colleges, and ICAR quota seats still vacant after the final round went back to the universities to fill as their own.

Where it is accepted

Participating institutes

The ICAR-AU system that admits through this exam has 74 agricultural universities: 63 state agricultural, veterinary, horticultural and fisheries universities, the four ICAR deemed universities, three central agricultural universities (CAU Imphal, Dr. RPCAU Pusa and RLBCAU Jhansi) and four central universities with agriculture faculties (BHU, AMU, Visva-Bharati and Nagaland University), according to the ICAR AIEEA (PG) 2026 Information Bulletin. CAU Imphal belongs to that system but is not one of the two central agricultural universities the bulletin names as filling every master's seat through the exam.

The bulletin's university list, with each Registrar's phone and email, is marked indicative and tentative, and the final list comes at counselling. Its tentative seat tables go sub-subject by sub-subject and include hub campuses such as IARI's Cuttack hub; many rows read "NR", which the bulletin explains as seats not received that may be available at counselling. The bulletin's own cross-reference sends readers to Annexure-XII for seats, but Annexure-XII is the code list of graduating universities, and the seat tables sit in Annexure-XXII.

Get help

Contact

NTA takes queries on the examination at icar@nta.ac.in and on 011-40759000 and 011-69227700, according to the ICAR AIEEA (PG) 2026 Information Bulletin, which gives 10:00 am to 5:00 pm as the helpline hours for admit card problems and legal@nta.ac.in as the only channel for legal notices.

Correspondence should preferably be addressed by e-mail, the bulletin says, and documents need not be sent at all: the application runs online throughout, so nothing, the confirmation page included, has to reach NTA or ICAR by post, fax, e-mail or by hand. ICAR, which runs counselling, gives its Agricultural Education Division's address as KAB-II, Pusa, New Delhi-110012 on its Public Notice on Counselling 2026.

Source

Official links

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Disclaimer

Disclaimer

CURRENT STATUS: Unlike UG, ICAR postgraduate admissions are STILL conducted through the separate ICAR AIEEA (PG) exam (not CUET-PG). Exact dates, fees, cut-offs, answer keys, results, seat counts and counselling are per-cycle. Pattern reflects recent verified cycles; reconfirm against the current bulletin. Anything per-cycle here is stated for the cycle it names and is taken from the conducting body's own notification; confirm it on the official website before acting on it. Expertie does not conduct any exam, process applications or charge fees.

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