India is one of the largest vegetable oil economies in the world and stands next to the USA, China, Brazil, and Argentina. The diverse agro-ecological conditions in the country are favorable for growing nine annual oilseed crops. The oilseeds are predominantly grown in a rainfed challenging ecosystem and development of location-specific technologies and their effective dissemination was possible through the establishment of the All India Coordinated Research Project on Oilseeds in 1967. AICRPs for Sunflower and Safflower were added during 1972, as per the recommendation of the Jain Committee constituted by ICAR and the subsequent approval by the ICAR. The responsibility to coordinate and monitor the program under AICRP (Sunflower, safflower, and castor) was vested with the Director, IIOR with effect from 1.7.2001 during IX Plan. Presently, the project is operating at 26 centres located in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Punjab, Haryana, Odisha, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Madya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, and Bihar.
The All India Coordinated Research Programme (AICRP) facilitates to develop the region specific varieties/hybrids and the crop production and protection technologies. And it has been proved to be an effective programmes which provides the scope to evaluate the germplasm for major biotic and abiotic stresses in the hot spots; evaluate and develop region/situation specific varieties/hybrids along with crop production packages and methods to control the major diseases and insect pests endemic to different regions. It facilitates the exchange of expertise and promising materials which ultimately leads to develop region specific technologies. Concerted efforts under AICRP on Castor, Sunflower and safflower during the past 50 years lead to the release of 138 high yielding cultivars along with appropriate production and protection technologies.