The institute includes sections that specialize in statistical techniques for animal and plant breeding, bioinformatics, sampling, experimental design, modelling and forecasting.

In 1930 the, then, Imperial Council of Agricultural Research, started a statistical unit to assist the State Departments of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry in planning their experiments, analysis of experimental data, interpretation of results and rendering advice on the formulation of the technical programmes of the Council.

The early research was on reliable methods for collecting yield statistics of principal food crops.

The branch soon acquired international recognition as a centre for research and training in the field of Agricultural Statistics.

In 1964, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed with the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi and courses in M.Sc.