Crop improvement programmes are broadly grouped under two mega projects:

(i) Improvement of coconut, arecanut and cocoa

(ii) Biotechnological investigation in palms and cocoa

There are 12 sub-projects/programmes under the first project that include collection, conservation, cataloguing and evaluation of germplasm, breeding for high yielding cultivars/hybrids, evolving high yielding dwarf varieties in arecanut and evaluation of drought tolerant cocoa clones. Collaborating agencies are NBPGR, IPGRI/COGENT etc.

The objectives of the project on biotechnological investigation include development of tissue culture protocols for coconut and arecanut and DNA finger printing and character tagging in coconut using various molecular markers such as RAPD, AFLP, DAF and SSRs. There are seven projects under this mega project.  Collaborating agencies are DBT, NBPGR, IPGRI/COGENT etc.