Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday against the closure of the Central Potato Research Station (CPRS) at Muthorai in the Nilgiris.
After media reports suggested that the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) decided to shut it down, he said: “The closure of the CPRS at Udhagamandalam will have a detrimental impact on the interest of the potato farmers of this State and entire South India.”
Potatoes are primarily grown in the hilly districts of Dindigul, the Nilgiris, Krishnagiri and Erode, covering nearly 5,500 hectare. The CPRS, founded in 1957, has been serving potato farmers for the past 70 years in coordination with the State as well as with the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU).
“This is the only station in the whole of South India researching potato cyst nematode and potato early blight which are major diseases affecting potato cultivation and help the farmers to keep these maladies in check and grow the crop profitably,” the Chief Minister said.
The CPRS was one of the two Institutes where potato farmers were getting disease-free seeds. If the research station was closed, farmers in south India would have to depend on the Potato Research Station at Jalandhar, Punjab to access disease-free planting materials, which in turn will increase the cost of cultivation. Moreover, the varieties of north India are not suitable for the south,” he added.
He asked the Prime Minister to direct the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare and the ICAR not to close the station.