Welcome to AICRP on Rapeseed-Mustard

Until mid-forties, barring sporadic and isolated research efforts, the rapeseed-mustard crop commodity did not get attention in terms of research and development. The earliest attempt ot organise research in oilseeds was made by constituting the Indian Central Oilseeds Committee (ICOC) in oilseeds was made by constituting the Indian Central Oilseeds Committee (ICOC) in 1947 under the Indian Oilseeds Committee Act IX of 1946. The main objective of the ICOC was to increase production of individual oilseeds through adhoc funding of research programmes carried out by the State Department of Agriculture, Universities and Central Institutes. The ICOC was replaced by Oilseeds Development Council in 1966. During the course of two decades, research efforts led to the development of a number of high yielding varieties of mustard (Laha 101, Varuna, Durgamani, Patan Mustard), toria (BR-23, M-27, ITSA, T-36, DK-1) brown sarson (BSA, BSG, BSH-1, BS-65, BS-70), yellow sarson (T-151, Patan Sarson, YS PB-24,) and taramira (ITSA). The research programmes on rapeseed-mustard got a boost when the Alll India Coordinated Research Project on Oilseeds (AICRPO) was initiated in April, 1967 with a full time Project Coordinator covering five major oilseed crops-groundnut, mustard, sesame, linseed and castor. The project got a fillip in 1977.