A certain mystique has surrounded orchids for centuries. Orchids are undoubtedly some of the most exquisite and abundant members of the plant kingdom. A moderate estimate would suggest about 25,000 species in the plant family Orchidaceae. In the 19th century, fascinated by these beautiful and intriguing flowers wealthy and powerful spent fortunes to maintain them in their backyard. But thanks to the modem propagation and production technologies, today they are accessible to a much broader section of people. Horticulturists world-wide today grow orchids not only because they are mysterious, but mainly due to the factthatthey are highly priced and occupy 8% share of the Global floricultural trade. 

India is home to about 1,700 species of orchids, of which about 800 are found in the North Eastern region of the country. North Eastern, Himalayas are not only rich in terms of number of species, but more-importantly many of them rank at the top of the list of ornamentally important ones. Sikkim Himalaya, comprising the hills of Sikkim and Darjeeling, harbours about 450 species and the centre of origin for important species like Cymbidium. However, many of these, once abundant, species are threatened or might have already disappeared in the wild. 

er researc       port is imperative to save         ese beautiful members of plant kingdom, and also to harness the economic potential by scientific and judicious management. None other, but ICAR has taken the lead to fill@-the gap by establishing a National Research Centre for Orchids, based on the recommendations of the Planning Commission.      'The site has been identified by a team of experts from ICAR under the chairmanship of Dr K.L. Chadha, DDG (Hort.) at Pakyong, Sikkim for establishment of the centre. Sikkim State authorities approved and handed over 22.19 acres of land belonging to regional agricultural centre along with all other assets. The MOU and lease deed were signed on 4 December 1995 and land was handed over in October 1996. In October 1997 the centre also took over the Darjeeling centre of CPRI.  

For resolving major constraints in production of orchids and other bulbous ornamentals  in major growing belt,  the centre has mission mode approach with following mandate

• To collect, conserve, characterize and evaluate germplasm and develop National repository of orchids and bulbous flowering plants.

• To standardize agro-techniques for cultivation of orchids, gladiolus, anthurium and lillium with specific emphasis on low cost technology. 

•  To evaluate locally adopted orchid species for their suitability as cut flower or potted plant for commercial purpose.  

•  To standardize micro propagation techniques for production of quality planting material at commercial scale. 

•  To develop export-worthy orchid lines through a systematic breeding programme.

• To carry out systematic work on disease and pest management of Orchids and other bulbous flowering plants.

• To standardize post harvest management practices of cut flowers for domestic and International markets.

Collection of the the available germplasm, evaluation , characterization, documentation and conservation of the Orchids, development of hybrids suitable for domestic and export market, mass multiplication of quality planting material through tissue culture, Standardization of potting media, development of production technology, post harvest handling, packaging and transportation technologies and to disseminate improved production technologies among the growers.