Welcome to National Research Centre on Litchi

The Institute

The ICAR-NRCL is premier national institute for conducting research and developments on litchi and provides leadership at national level. It also acts as a national repository of information on litchi production, processing, value addition, and provides consultancy services to end users. Currently, the Centre has one RMP, 7 scientific, 8 technical, 7 administrative and 2 supporting staff against the sanctioned strength of one RMP, 15 scientific, 8 technical, 11 administrative and 2 supporting staff.

Director's Message

Litchi is an important fruit crop of the country with tremendous domestic market and export potential. At present, the area of this fruit under cultivation is 95,000 hectares and production is 727,000 metric tonnes (NHB, 2018-19). The productivity of litchi is although better in India in comparison with its native country but still wide gap exists between present productivity level (7-8 tonnes/ha) and realizable potential productivity (14-15 tonnes/ha). The export of litchi from India is however meagre (108 tonnes). Litchi contributes significantly to the growers’ economy in Bihar, West Bengal, Assam and Jharkhand states of India that accounts for 78% of the total production in the country. Bihar produces 43% of total litchi and occupies nearly 35% of the area in India. About 300 thousand metric tonnes of litchi is being produced from 32 thousand hectares area in Bihar of which nearly 12,000 hectares of orchards are in Muzaffarpur The ICAR-NRC on Litchi has the mandate to address the productivity gap through basic and strategic research in areas of crop improvement and genetic enhancement, development of sustainable production technologies, integrated pest management systems, and post-harvest management and value addition.