Vision 2025 CICR Perspective Plan

Abstract

Cotton plays a key role in the National economy in terms of generation of direct and indirect employment in the Agricultural and Industrial sectors. Textiles and related exports of which cotton constitutes nearly 65% account for nearly 33% of the total foreign exchange earnings of our country which at present is around 12 billion dollars with a potential for a significant increase in the coming year. After independence, the erstwhile Indian Central Cotton Committee, one of the many commodity committees extant that time used to sponsor cotton research schemes on an adhoc basis till the work was taken over by the ICAR in 1966. Further the research efforts under All India Coordinated Cotton Improvement Project (AICCIP) was initiated by the Council in the year 1967. The establishment of AICCIP gave new fillip and direction in terms of multi-disciplinary and multi-centre approaches with the active involvement of Sate Agriculture Universities. The work in this project has contributed significantly in tackling location-specific problems in terms of varietal improvement and development of appropriate production and protection technologies. However, looking to the long term projections in respect of quantum and quality requirements of cotton and looking to the low level of productivity which is primarily due to the fact that the major cotton growing area is under rainfed conditions constantly exposed to vagaries and uncertainties of monsoon patterns in terms of total precipitation and distribution coupled with the varying level of pest and disease incidence, the necessity for expanding the research efforts in the spheres of basic and fundamental research and generate appropriate scientific data base for bringing in quantum jump in productivity through appropriately tailored applied approaches and technology was comprehended and accordingly the Central Institute for Cotton Research was established at Nagpur in the year 1976 by the ICAR. The erstwhile Regional Station of IARI at Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu) became a part of CICR simultaneously to cater to the needs of southern cotton zone. In the year 1985, the IARI Regional Station at Sirsa (Haryana) was transferred to CICR as a regional centre for the northern irrigated cotton zone.