ONGOLE: The State government has given a nod to establish Agriculture Research Centre in around 540 acres of land at Chinapavani village in Lingasamudram mandal. The centre will conduct research on various pulses, cereals and millet crop varieties along with new hybrid variants.
The proposals for this research centre were first made in 2019. District agriculture authorities made proposals as the Old State Seed Development Centre was closed at Chinapavani village, which was spread across 540 acres.
In 1970’s, the Seed Development Centre of Chinapavani successfully developed various hybrid varieties of paddy, black gram, jowar and bajra. However, the seed development centre lost its sheen gradually. In 2019, authorities tried to revive it and sent a proposal to convert it into a State-level Agriculture Research Centre.
The agriculture department stated that this centre will now conduct scientific experiments on producing new varieties of bengal gram, red gram, black gram, jowar, bajra, maize, ragi, pearl millets, sesame seeds and groundnut oil seeds. It looks promising as many locals may get employment opportunities and the farming community too will get benefited with the research.