The Indian Institute of Millets Research has been growing from strength to strength under the able guidance of its current director Mr Vilas A. Tonapi.

As an agricultural research institute engaged in basic and strategic research on sorghum and other millets, IIMR operates under the aegis of Indian Council of Agricultural Research. IIMR coordinates and facilitates sorghum research at the national level through the All India Coordinated Research Projects on Sorghum and provides links with national and international agencies. IIMR was founded in 1958 under the Project on Intensified Research on Cotton, Oilseeds and Millets and was engaged in research on important dry-land crops as well as sorghum-based cropping systems. It paved the way for agricultural research in India during that time and was upgraded to Indian Institute of Millets Research in 2014. IIMR is helping National Agricultural Research Systems create strong linkages with producers, processors and markets of agricultural produce. It is also working with sister institutes to improve their capacity to carry out agricultural policy analysis to help influence change in policies that negatively affect millet production and productivity.