Step 1: Understanding the Concept:
The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) establishes diverse categories of specialized entities, including Research Institutes, Central Universities, Directorates, and National Research Centres (NRCs), to advance targeted commodity research across strategic geographical zones.
Step 2: Detailed Explanation:
Under the official classification system of ICAR, Bihar hosts exactly one standalone National Research Centre (NRC): the ICAR-National Research Centre for Litchi (NRCL), located at Mushahari in Muzaffarpur. Other prominent ICAR institutions active within the state, such as the ICAR Research Complex for Eastern Region (ICAR-RCER) in Patna and the Agricultural Technology Application Research Institute (ATARI) in Patna, fall structurally under the category of primary regional research institutes and technology application networks rather than separate national research centres. Therefore, the total count of National Research Centres is one.
Step 3: Final Answer
There is only one dedicated national-level research centre (NRC) located in Bihar.