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Regional Cotton Research Station, Viramgam

Introduction

Regional Cotton Research Station, Viramgam, came into existence with the establishment of Central Commodity Committee on Cotton in 1921 for catering the specific research and development needs of G. herbaceum cotton in North Gujarat. In 1962, the station was braced up with another important project for evolving and evaluating high yielding genotypes of forage sorghum. Since 1965, the research efforts of the Indian Central Cotton Committee were integrated into Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and thereby Viramgam station started co-coordinating with All India Co-ordinated Cotton Improvement Project. With the award of Agricultural University to the state in 1972 under Land Grant Commission, the activities of the station came under its jurisdiction. Consequent upon unavoidable and deterrent circumstances that culminated in social unrest, the station was shifted to Chharodi in 1984 .Seed production programme was initiated at Viramgam on limited basis in 1984,though the research activities were continued at Chharodi. The activities were closed at Chharodi in 1998 and ever since the research activities in toto are carried at Viramgam. The significance of the station may be highlighted from the simple fact that five varieties developed from the station viz., V 797, G Cot 13, G Cot 21, ADC-1 and GADC 3 occupy around 21 per cent of the area under cotton in Gujarat. The productivity in these areas endowed with rainfed farming and abiotic stress like salinity, wind etc are still far from satisfactory. The station shoulders responsibility for Wagad Cotton Zone, spanned over 5.50 Lakh hectares in seven districts viz., Ahmedabad, Surendranagar, Mehsana, Patan, Kutch, Banaskantha and part of Rajkot. Gujarat occupied world’s biggest cultivated area of Gossypium herbaceum cotton which is 20 per cent area of the cotton grown in Gujarat. The centre is located in North Gujarat at 230 06’ 53" North Latitude and 720 03’ 1" East Longitude and Altitude of 36.5 m on State Highway No 17 connecting Ahmedabad and Viramgam. The station is well connected with railways to almost all corners of the country.

 

 

 

 
 
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