Welcome to All India Co-ordinated Research Network on Potential Crops
A need for carrying out systematic research on lesser known crops of future promise was felt in the late 70’s when the symptoms of their erosion started appearing following adoption of large scale monocultures of green revolution crops in the advanced agricultural belts of the country. This resulted in the initiation of the All India Coordinated Research Project on Underutilized and Under Exploited Plants (AICRP on UU & UEP) in 1982, during the VI Five Year Plan under the ICAR umbrella. Based on the recommendations of II QRT, the project was rechristened as All India Coordinated Research Project on Underutilized Crops (AICRP on UC). The project was converted into network mode during X Five Year Plan and is now functioning as All India Coordinated Research Network on Underutilized Crops. At present, the network is called as AICRN on Potential Crops since 2013 (XII five year plan)
News/Events
Network Coordinator’s message
Potential Crops also known by various names such as underutilized crops/ orphan crops, Neglected and Underutilized Species are those to which little attention has been paid or which receive low priority from agricultural researchers, plant breeders and policymakers. Typically, Potential Crops are not traded as commodities. They mostly occur in semi-domesticated phase and adapted to particular, often quite local environments and lot of traditional knowledge is associated with them. Nevertheless, many of these varieties and species and associated traditional knowledge on their cultivation and use, are being lost at an alarming rate.
