The central government is likely to clean the proposal to set up a regional center of the Peru-based International Potato Center (CIP), a major research-development-development organization, with focus on potato and sweet potato in India.
The proposed center-CIP-South ASIA Regional Center (CIP-SARC)-will come to Agra, and will serve farmers not only in Potato belt states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal, but will also complete South Asian countries.
It is learned that the Union Cabinet is likely to approve a proposal of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare for the establishment of the center soon. This development was written by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to the Center, when demanded the initial establishment of a regional center of CIP in Agra district. Recently, a delegation of the Ministry of Agriculture led by Agriculture Secretary, Agriculture Secretary visited Peru.
Exposing the delay in the establishment of the center, Adityanath wrote a letter to Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan on 20 January. In the letter, Adityanath urged Chauhan to direct the concerned officials in his ministry to pave the way for the initial installation of the South Asia Region (CIP)- South Asia Regional Center in Singana, Egra.
Sources say the project will be $ 20 million (about Rs 160 crore), of which India will contribute $ 13 million, while the remaining $ 7 million will be funded by CIP. The UP government has provided 10 hectares of land for the proposed center.
CIP-SARC will work not only for UP but also for the whole country and South Asia, the sources said that the proposed center would focus on the development of new varieties, which are climate flexible, disease-free, and suitable for processing. Sources said that it would bring global science expertise, a comprehensive global innovation network and global genetic resources.
The proposed center in Agra falls 8 years after the establishment of a uniform CIP center in China. Cip’s China Center, known as the China Center for Asia Pacific (CCCAP), was established in 2017 in Yanking, Beijing. Apart from China, the Center works throughout East Asia and Pacific.
The story continues below this advertisement
Lima, headquarters in Peru, CIP was established in 1971 as a research-development organization with focus on potato, sweet potato and Andean roots and tubers. Potato crop is a native of Peru-Bolevian Andes in South America.
The proposed CIP-SARC will be the second major International Agricultural Research Institute to establish its operations in India. In 2017, the Ministry of Agriculture supported the establishment of a regional center of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines. IRRI-SARC is established in Varanasi, the parliamentary constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
So far, at least two separate centers of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) work on tuber crops. While Shimla-based ICAR-Central Potato Research Institute (CPRI) is working on potato, Thiruvananthapuram-based ICAR-Sentral Kand Crops Research Institute (CTCRI) is working on sweet potato.
China is the top potato producer and consumer in the world, and is then done by India. In 2020, China’s potato production was recorded at 78.24 million tonnes, while India recorded a production of 51.30 million tonnes. The two countries had more than one third of global potato production (359.07 million tonnes).
The story continues below this advertisement
In India, Uttar Pradesh (15 million tonnes), West Bengal (15 million tonnes), and Bihar (9 million tonnes) were the top three potato growers in 2020-21. Important potato production in other states is Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Punjab.
,
