The institute is located on Kachawa Road in Karnal, in the state of Haryana, 125 km (78 mi) from the Indian capital of New Delhi.

However, by October 1969, the institute was shifted to its present premises in Karnal and a year later, the Central Rice Research Station, Canning Town, West Bengal was merged with CSSRI.

The institute has a satellite unit in Bharuch, which was originally started in Anand in 1989, but moved to Bharuch in 2003 and hosts the coordinating unit of AICRP on Management of Salt Affected Soils and Use of Saline Water in Agriculture with a network of eight research centres located in different agro ecological regions of the country at Agra, Bapatala, Bikaner, Gangawati, Hisar, Indore, Kanpur and Tiruchirapalli.

The coordinating unit of AICRP on Water Management was a part of CSSRI from early seventies till 1990 when it was moved to Rahuri in Maharashtra.

The Division attends to the areas related to groundwater recharge technologies, subsurface drainage for amelioration of waterlogged saline soils and decision support systems for ground water contaminations.

[9] Development of saline and alkaline tolerant crops such as rice, wheat and mustard through conventional breeding and modern molecular and physiological approaches is the primary activity of the Division.

The development of human resources through trainings on reclamation and management of salt-affected soils and use of poor quality water in agriculture.