“This would go a long way in making these organisations from being subsidy-oriented to research-oriented” in the coming years, Mr Ramesh said, adding that except in rubber, India’s record in improving productivity in other commercial crops such as tea, coffee and spices has been none too encouraging.

He said that while India has the distinction of being number four in world rubber production and number one in productivity, in crops like tea, Sri Lanka has higher productivity than India, in cardamom Guatemala, in pepper Sri Lanka and Vietnam and in cashew, Vietnam has productivity that is three times higher than India.

He also stated that in States like Assam and North East and Bengal, which account for 75 per cent of the country’s tea production, there is total cessation of activity for three months beginning November to January because of “winter dormancy”.

In the case of coffee, while Brazil has rainfall throughout the year, India is yet to grasp the issue of tackling the dry spell in coffee cultivation. This remains “a huge challenge” and hence there is a need to focus more on tackling technical problems plaguing the plantation sector through focused research approach and the recent decisions would address these constraints effectively.

To a query about replantation and rejuvenation programmes being piloted by his Ministry, Mr Ramesh said that except tea, other major crops like coffee, rubber, pepper, and coconut all await finance ministry’s approval.

He said once the research personnel are recruited they would focus their efforts on how to augment coffee cultivation in tribal areas like Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa, rubber in Tripura and Assam, marine products in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Orissa and Gujarat and spices such as mint in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Gujarat which now account for 50 per cent of spices production in the country.