After independence, the erstwhile Indian Central Cotton Committee, one of the commodity committees extant that time used to sponsor cotton research schemes on an Adhoc basis until the work was taken over by the ICAR in 1966. Further the research effort under All India Coordinated Cotton Improvement Project (AICCIP) was initiated by the council in the year 1967. The establishment of AICCIP gave new fillip and direction in the terms of multi-disciplinary and multi-centre approaches with the active involvement of State Agriculture Universities. The work in this project has contributed significantly in tackling location specific problems in terms of varietal improvement and development of appropriate production and protection technologies.
The erstwhile regional station of IARI at Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu) becomes a part of CICR in 1976 to cater to the needs of southern cotton zone.
At the regional station Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu) the basic, fundamental and applied research programs with specific reference to the locations specific requirement of the southern cotton zone are being carried out in the disciplines of Genetics & Plant Breeding, Agronomy, Soil Science, Plant Physiology, Entomology, Nematology, Plant Pathology, Seed Technology, Computer Application, Agricultural Economics.
