About the All India Coordinated Research Project on Spices
“Spicing up the Nation's Progress” — Five decades of scientific excellence in spice research, from germplasm conservation to farmer empowerment.
Our Organisation
ICAR-All India Coordinated Research Project on Spices (AICRPS) is the largest spices research network in the country linking the ICAR system with State Agricultural Universities and central institutions.
AICRPS is located at ICAR-Indian Institute of Spices Research, Marikunnu P.O., Kozhikode, Kerala — 673012. Established in 1971, it works under the umbrella of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and the Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE), Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers' Welfare.
AICRPS operates through a vast network of 40 centers — 19 regular centers, 19 voluntary centers and 2 project mode centers — representing 14 agro-climatic regions across 24 states including North Eastern States and Tribal areas.
Presently, ICAR-AICRPS is working on 18 mandate crops viz., black pepper, small cardamom, large cardamom, ginger, turmeric, nutmeg, cinnamon, clove, coriander, cumin, fennel, fenugreek, ajwain, nigella, saffron, kalazeera, mango ginger and black turmeric.
Mandate
- Developing high yielding, high quality varieties suitable for various agro-ecological situations.
- Standardization and dissemination agro-techniques for different agro-climatic conditions for production of food safe spices
- Transfer of technologies through FLDs and print and visual media
- Work as an interface between State Agricultural Universities (SAUs) and Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)
Vision & Mission
Journey of AICRPS
From a small 4-center project in 1971 to a 40-center national network today.
Initiated as All India Coordinated Spices and Cashew nut Improvement Project with 4 centres at Solan, Mudigere, Panniyur & Pampadumpara.
Five more regular centres started — Guntur, Jagudan, Jobner, Coimbatore and tribal area of Pottangi.
Regular centres at Sirsi, Yercaud and tribal area of Chintapalle also started functioning.
Became a full-fledged coordinating unit for spices (major spices and seed spices) as ICAR-AICRP on Spices. HQ at ICAR-IISR, Kozhikode. Regular centre at Kammarpally started.
Regular centres were started at Dholi and Hisar.
Two more regular centres added — Dapoli and Kumarganj.
Regular centres at Pundibari and tribal area of Raigarh started functioning.
Eight co-opting centres in Karnataka, Kerala, Meghalaya, Sikkim and Tamil Nadu. Seven voluntary centres in Arunachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand and West Bengal.
Two co-opting centres at Assam & Nagaland and two voluntary centres at Gujarat and Rajasthan started functioning.
AICRPS centre at Pasighat was upgraded as co-opting centre.
One voluntary centre at Andaman started functioning.
Core Research Areas
Collection and conservation of 9,744 accessions in 18 crops — black pepper (454), turmeric (1,812), coriander (2,097), fenugreek (1,680) and more.
Evolved 194+ spice varieties including climate resilient types — IISR Pragati (drought tolerant turmeric), IISR Mahima (nematode tolerant ginger), GC4 (wilt tolerant cumin).
196 crop-wise technologies including micro-irrigation, organic production, GAP, SAP, rapid multiplication via single node protray method, and PGPR seed coating.
Outreach to tribal lands of Chintapalle (AP), Pottangi (Odisha), Raigarh (CG) and 7 NE state centers — providing quality planting material and training to women farmers.
Web-based online reporting, monitoring and information dissemination system. DNA fingerprinting data, online data submission portal, digitized documents.
Phytophthora foot rot management in black pepper via grafting on P. colubrinum rootstock; biofumigation for ginger rhizome rot; NSKE for coriander powdery mildew.
Network Centers
Our research infrastructure spans the entire country — from Kerala to Meghalaya, Gujarat to Arunachal Pradesh — covering all major spice-growing regions.
Full-scale multi-crop research stations with permanent scientific staff, facilities and infrastructure
Partner institutions contributing voluntarily to the national spice research network
State Agricultural University centers co-opted for collaborative and aligned spice research
Explore Our Research & Impact
Discover the varieties we have developed, technologies we have released, and the impact we have made on Indian spice agriculture.