About Cpcri
The Coconut Research Station at Kasaragod in Kerala was initially established in 1916 by the then Government of Madras and subsequently it was taken over by the Indian Central Coconut Committee in 1948. Central Plantation Crops Research Institute (CPCRI) was established in 1970 as one of the agricultural research institutes in the National Agricultural Research System (NARS) under the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR).
The Institute had the mandate to undertake research on coconut, arecanut, cocoa, cashew, oil palm and spices at the time of establishment. The research on cashew, oil palm and spices were later delinked from CPCRI to form separate institutes. The present organizational set up of the Institute with headquarter at Kasaragod, Kerala, Regional Stations at Kayamkulam (Kerala), Vittal (Karnataka) and Minicoy (Lakshadweep islands) and Research Centres at Kahikuchi (Assam), Mohitnagar (West Bengal) and Kidu (Karnataka) cater to the research needs of the mandate crops at the National level. The research programmes of the institute is organized under five divisions viz. Crop Improvement, Crop Production, Crop Protection, Physiology, Biochemistry and Post Harvest Technology and Social Sciences. The Institute also holds the International Coconut Gene Bank for South Asia at Kidu in Karnataka. The Institute also serves as the headquarter of All India Co-ordinated Research Project (AICRP) on Palms with 13 centres on coconut, 7 centres on oil palm and 2 centres on palmyrah.