It was then renamed as the Imperial Agricultural Research Institute in 1919 and following a major earthquake in Pusa in 1934, it was relocated to Delhi in 1936.

The current institute in Delhi is financed and administered by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR).

[2] The choice of establishing it in Pusa in northern Bihar was the proximity to the indigo plantations which were in need of revival following the German synthesis of aniline in 1899.

One of the first scientists to be deputed to the institute was the English chemist John Walter Leather who had worked from 1892 with the agricultural department in India.

[9] The Standing Finance Committee of the Union Assembly finally announced on 25 August 1934 in Shimla, the decision to shift the institute to New Delhi at the approximate cost of ₹3.8 million (US$44,000).