This centre was sanctioned during XII Five year plan and started functioning at Rice Res. Station, Vytilla (Kochi) under KAU, Thrissur, Kerala as per ICAR Order NRM-1(21)/2014-SW&DF, Dated: 25-04-2014. The centre is situated in Agro ecological region 19 (Western Ghats and Coastal Plain, hot humid-per humid) and located at 9.9667° N Latitude and 76.3168° E Longitude.
- IFS in Pokkali Lands: Successfully developed an integrated farming system model in pokkali lands with sequential rice prawn culture and cultivation of vegetables in pokkali bunds. The cultivation is purely organic with no fertilizer and pesticides and no external inputs for paddy were used. For prawn culture, organic feed is used. Monitoring the pH and EC of the field continuously and adopting timely management practices helped to achieve a rice yield upto 2.5 t ha-1 and a prawn yield upto 0.62 t ha-1 with BC ratio of 2. Farmers of this area traditionally adopted this farming by prawn infiltration. But prawn culture is more remunerative. Most of the farmers now resort to monoculture of prawn which deteriorates the soil quality and disease infestation of prawns. By our intervention farmers are now cultivating rice followed by prawn.
- Horticulture in Pokkali Lands: In the pokkali bunds planting of coconut trees and vegetables fetched more income to the farmers. Introduced the cultivation of winter season vegetables (cauliflower and cabbage) in the pokkali bunds with mulching the soil to reduce evaporation loss from the soil to reduce the capillary rise of saline water.
