The Agricultural Technology Application Research Institute is a Coordination Unit for Transfer of Technology, Zone-X was established in September, 1979 as Cess Fund Scheme at Andhra Pradesh Agricultural University, Hyderabad primarily to monitor the activities of the Lab to Land Programme in the states of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Puduchery and Tamilnadu. Subsequently in 1985, the unit was shifted to the campus of Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture, Hyderabad. The Unit was given the responsibility of monitoring of Lab to Land Programme until 1986. Later the unit was brought under the plan scheme of ICAR.
In 1987, the Council gave the unit additional responsibility of monitoring other ICAR supported Transfer of Technology Projects viz. Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVK), Trainers Training Centre (TTC), National Demonstration Scheme (NDS), Operational Research Projects (ORP), All India Coordinated Project on SC / ST (AICRP SC/ ST) and Special Projects on Oilseeds that were implemented in the zone.