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- ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi
- ICAR-Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute, New Delhi (IASRI)
- ICAR-National Rice Research Institute, Cuttack (NRRI)
- ICAR-Indian Institute of Wheat and Barley Research, Karnal (IIWBR)
- ICAR-Central Institute of Cotton Research, Nagpur (CICR)
- ICAR-Indian Institute of Vegetable Research, Varanasi (IIVR)
- ICAR-National Research Centre on Banana (NRCB)
- ICAR-Indian Institute of Soil Science, Bhopal (IISS)
- ICAR- National Bureau of Soil Survey and Land Use Planning, Nagpur (NBSS&LUP)
- ICAR-Indian Institute of Water Management, Bhubaneshwar (IIWM)
- ICAR-Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Bhopal (CIAE)
- ICAR- Central Institute of Post-Harvest Engineering and Technology, Ludhiana (CIPHET)
- ICAR-National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal (NDRI)
- ICAR-Central Institute of Fisheries Education, Mumbai (CIFE)
- ICAR- Central Inland Fishery Research Institute, Barrakpore (CIFRI)
- ICAR- Central Institute of Fresh Aquaculture, Bhubaneswar (CIFA)
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Aim/Agenda
About us:
ICAR-CICR is the premier Institute dealing with cotton – that clothes mankind. After partition, the mills remained in India, but the most suitable lands for cotton cultivation were in Pakistan. Therefore, research efforts began to develop long-lint cotton cultivars that suited the textile mills. With the aim of increasing cotton production and long term research on production related problems and providing basic support to cotton research in the country, it was established in April 1976 in Nagpur city of Vidarbha region of Maharashtra. The Institute’s Regional Centre, Coimbatore is engaged in cotton research for the southern region under irrigated and rainfed conditions and Regional Centre, Sirsa for the irrigated northern cotton region of the country. The Institute has several landmark achievements with regard to the development of cotton varieties, namely, Suvin – the finest Indian variety with 120s count, belonging to the Egyptian cottons (G. barbadense); MCU-5 VT– the finest American cotton variety (G. hirsutum) with tolerance to Verticillium wilt; the world’s first GMS based hybrid – Suguna; the most widely adaptable cotton variety LRA-5166, the compact early maturing variety LRK-516 released in 1992 and superior fibre variety with high adaptability – Suraj and Surabhi were released. CICR was the first, in the public sector, to introgress the Bt gene into its popular varieties and released them in 2020 and 2021. The Institute is also a repository of the cotton germplasm with 12,336 accessions including wild species, interspecific derivatives and land races. Apart from the achievements in the Genetics and Plant Breeding, the Institute has embarked upon gene editing technologies. The institute is widely known for its pioneering research on crop protection, the major ones were the Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Strategies and the Insecticide Resistance Management. For the first time, the technology for the control of the mealy bugs was developed. The Institut4e developed crop-window based management strategies for the control of pink boll worm and whitefly which was disseminated by the State Governments. The Institute has several patents (national and international) for the detection of Bt gene and the Institute is recognized as a Bt Referral Laboratory. Furthermore, the Institute is also well known for the strategies it has developed in the case of disease management. The institute was at the forefront in developing the high density planting system for cotton since 2008-09. Several agro-techniques to reduce cost of cultivation such as allelopathy for weed management, nutrient expert system; improved water management, rain water harvesting and conservation agriculture technologies have been developed and demonstrated. An innovative extension strategy, the first of its kind, ‘e-Kapas’ was implemented successfully since 2012.
What we do:
Cotton, known as ‘white gold’ in the country, is a major fibre of global importance. India has the unique distinction of being the only country in the world to cultivate all the four cultivable species of cotton, the Asiatic cottons, the Egyptian cottons and the American Upland cottons. At present, GM-cotton hybrids are grown on >95% of the 13 million hectares across 10 cotton growing states after it was first introduced in 2002. In the recent years, however, the productivity levels have stagnated and the Institute has set its priorities to improve the cotton productivity and the production in the country. The main objective of Central Institute for Cotton Research is to increase the production, productivity and profitability of cotton cultivation by developing varieties and hybrids in cotton growing areas. Crop Production division is aiming to develop agro-techniques to improve soil health, develop climate-smart agronomy and reduce cost of cultivation. Crop protection research is focussed on developing novel pest and disease management strategies and area-wide management.
It is spearheading a nationwide Special Project on Cotton in public-private partnership mode covering 8 states, 61 districts, 9175 hectares and 10,000 farmers to scale up HDPS, closer spacing and ELS (Extra-long staple cotton) production. The project is a joint initiative of MoA&FW and MoT. Precision cotton farming is a Flagship initiative in the EFC 2021-22 to 2025-26. Research for developing climate smart crop production and protection technologies for monitoring, detection and insect pest and disease control through sensor-based application, decision support tools and drones is underway under the NePPA.
Objectives of the sub-project:
- Developing rapid sensor-based methods for soil fertility assessment
- Quantitative assessment of cotton health through sensing and data analytics
- Developing Spatial Decision Support System(SDSS) for precision crop management
- Developing Variable Rate Technologies(VRTs) for site specific input management
- Up-scaling suitable PA technologies on farmer’s field scale to enhance input use efficiency and optimize production system