Syllabus: 

GS3: Issues related to Direct and Indirect Farm Subsidies and Minimum Support Prices; Public Distribution System - Objectives, Functioning, Limitations, Revamping; Issues of Buffer Stocks and Food Security; Technology Missions; Economics of Animal-Rearing.

Context:

Recently, the Centre cleared a proposal to set up the South Asia regional centre of the Peru-based International Potato Centre (CIP) in in Agra district of Uttar Pradesh. 

More on the News

The CIP-South Asia Regional Centre (CSARC) will serve as a cutting-edge hub for potato, sweetpotato and other root and tuber crop research and development in close collaboration with ICAR institutes, State Agricultural Departments, Indian universities and private sector partners. 

The total cost of the project is ₹171 crore, with India contributing ₹111 crore and the remaining ₹60 crore funded by the International Potato Centre (CIP). The Uttar Pradesh government has allocated 10 hectares of land for the proposed centre.

CSARC will be the second major global agri-research centre to set up its operations in India. 

• In 2017, the Agriculture Ministry supported establishment of a regional centre of the Philippines-based International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). 
• The IRRI-SARC is established in Varanasi. 

As of now, at least two different centres of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) work on tuber crops. 

• The Shimla-based ICAR - Central Potato Research Institute (CPRI) is working on potato, while the Thiruvananthapuram-based ICAR - Central Tuber Crops Research Institute (CTCRI) is working on sweet potato.

India is projected to become the world’s top potato producer by 2050, potentially surpassing China, with annual output reaching 100 million tonnes, according to scientists from the International Potato Centre (CIP). 

International Potato Centre (CIP)

The International Potato Centre (CIP) was founded in 1971.

Headquarter: Lima, Peru.

CIP is a CGIAR research centre, a global research partnership for a food-secure future and focuses on potato, sweet potato, and Andean roots and tubers. 

• CGIAR science is dedicated to transforming food, land and water systems in a climate crisis.

CIP has worked in India since 1975 and collaborates closely with national and regional partners across Asia and Africa.  

China estb. its regional CIP centre in 2017, known as the China Center for Asia Pacific (CCCAP), in Yanqing, Beijing and serves the entire East Asia and the Pacific region.