The Hindu : Business : PRS to highlight achievements

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Feb 22, 2007
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Business

Business

PRS to highlight achievements

Staff Reporter

3-day meet begins on February 24

KANNUR: The Pepper Research Station (PRS) at Panniyur here, a pioneer in the field of research on black pepper in the country, will highlight its achievements over the last five decades during a three-day function to mark the culmination of its golden jubilee.

The PRS, which got a facelift after it was chosen as a Krishi Vigyan Kendra, has evolved into a major institution for organising training and extension technologies in the field over the years even as it enjoys the reputation as a pepper research institution.

The three-day function beginning on February 24 will be attended by Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan and Health Minister P.K. Sreemathy, among others.

"We are proud that much of the package of practices concerning scientific cultivation of pepper have been developed by the Pepper Research Station," K.P. Mammootty, associate professor at the PRS said.

The PRS was started with the mandate to conduct research on various aspects of pepper for rehabilitating pepper industry in the country to face competition from other pepper producing countries.

It started as a modest scheme in 1949 under the erstwhile Madras Department of Agriculture for scientific aid to pepper industry in South India. The present location of the station at Panniyur was selected in 1952.

Following the re-organisation of the State, it was brought under the Agriculture Department in 1956 and in 1972 was turned into a research station of the Kerala Agricultural University.

The PRS located on a 25.55-acre farm earned fame after the first pepper hybrid `Panniyur-1' was released in 1967. This hybrid led to the increase of pepper production not only in the State but also in the country as well as the other pepper producing countries.

"The major achievement of the station over the last 50 years is the development of hybrid pepper," Dr. Mammootty said. The station had released many black pepper varieties since 1967, he added.

The other achievements included development of a low cost technology for rapid multiplication of pepper and a novel technique of raising bus pepper, he said.

Recent achievements of the station included development of a hybrid having partial resistance to the foot rot disease and identification of a wild genotype of black pepper as an alternative source for foot rot resistance, among others.

The PRS has a rich collection of germplasm of pepper from different parts of the world.

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