The first Open Access Repository in agricultural sciences to be established in India is  ICRISAT Open Access Repository in May 2009. The ICRISAT, had taken lead in the movement and organised Consultation on Enhancing Open Access in Indian Agriculture during Septemember 2009 at Hyderabad. The outcome of the consultation is  the Eprints@IARI, the Open Access Institutional Repository of the Indian Agricultural Research Institute which was established in the same year (2009) during November and OpenAgri, Open Access Agriculture Research Repository under the Agropedia of National Agricultural Innovation Project (NAIP) in February 2010. These developments made Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute to establish its Open Access Institutional Repository, Eprints@CMFRI; Dspice@IISR by Indian Institute of Spices Research in June 2010; E-Repository@IIHR by Indian Institute of Horticultural Research in January 2011.

Apart from thematic repositories like Agropedia and OpenAgri under NAIP, establishment of thesis repository for agricultural sciences in India was initiated in March 2008 under the name 'Krishiprabha'. It houses all the doctoral dissertations submitted to various agricultural universities. It is now housing, about 6000 dissertations and is hosted by Chandhary Charan Singh Haryana Agriculture University, Hissar. Unfortunately its of closed access and is only open to the consortium partners and other constituents of the National Agricultural Research System in India. However, the ETD@UASD, thesis repository established by University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad is freely available for download and use.