ICAR – National Institute for Research on Commercial Agriculture

In India, organized tobacco research has its origin in the mid-1930s with the establishment of the Cigarette Tobacco Research Station at Guntur under the patronage of the formerly Imperial Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi. With the growing importance of tobacco in the national economy, the Government of India constituted the Indian Central Tobacco Committee to establish the Central Tobacco Research Institute in 1947. Subsequently, the institute was brought under the aegis of the ICAR in the year 1965. Through its long voyage of 79 years, the Institute has evolved into a tobacco research network system catering to the research needs of varied tobacco types. The institute has been commanding national tobacco research and has contributed to the growth and development of tobacco science. The institute has recently been rechristened as ICAR-NIRCA (ICAR-National Institute for Research on Commercial Agriculture) with a broader mandate, including commercial crops such as chilli, turmeric, castor, and ashwagandha in addition to tobacco. India, being the largest producer of these crops, has a low export orientation of these crops on a global scale is low, which needs to be accelerated to emerge as the powerhouse of agri-exporters in the world.

High-value Commercial Crops: Globally, India is the leader in chilli production (24.64 lakh tons) and has a share of 45% in the world, but only 27.7% of the produce (6.83 lakh tons) is exported and contributing to the foreign exchange of Rs. 10,395 Crores. Turmeric, known as the golden spice, around 84% of world production (10.74 lakh tons) and is grown in the country and encompasses huge diversity (around 40 to 45 species). Currently, turmeric exports are 1.75 lakh tons (15.5%) of produce is exported, contributing foreign exchange of Rs. 2,887 Crores; however, the processed share is only 0.5 lakh tons. In castor, India enjoys a virtual monopoly in castor production (17.16 lakh tons) and exports in the world. The castor oil exports (6.46 lakh tons) contribute to foreign exchange of Rs. 8966 Crores but import around 9, 000 crores of castor oil derivatives. India is the top producer of Ashwagandha, predominantly grown in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.