P. K. Venugopalan Nambiar

P.K Venugopalan Nambiar
Born	Taliparamba, India
Children	Devika, Vinod Kumar, Vijayakumar, Vasanthi , Venugopal, Valsala
Awards	Sugandha Bharathi Award - 2002 from Indian Society of Spices

P. K. Venugopalan Nambiar (1924–1996) was an Indian agricultural scientist credited with the development of the first hybrid variety of black pepper in the world, Panniyur-1. As the Head of Pepper Research Station, Panniyur in Kerala, he developed and released Panniyur-1 for commercial cultivation in 1971.

Venugopalan Nambiar devoted his life for improvement of black pepper to increase the productivity of the crop. He also assembled a large germ plasm collection of black pepper and developed infrastructure of Pepper Research Station in Panniyur. Besides being a scientist, Venugopalan Nambiar was cherished and adored as a leader of the farming community especially in Kerala

Panniyur-1

Although several varieties of Black pepper have been developed and released for commercial cultivation, Panniyur-1 has withstood the test of time and is still the ruling variety in all the states in India where black pepper is grown and also in other black pepper growing countries. This variety is known to every black pepper grower and is popular in small homestead gardens and in large plantations. The variety has special distinguishing characters such as long spike, high fruit setting bold berries and high yield.

Awards

The Indian Society of Spices, Calicut honored Venugopalan Nambiar with Sugandha Bharathi Award - 2002 in recognition of his lifetime contribution to the cause of black pepper and spices research and development.

See also

• Black Pepper

External links

• Pepper Varieties
• Pepper Research Centre, Panniyur

Persondata
Name	Nambiar, P. K. Venugopalan
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1924
Place of birth	Taliparamba, India
Date of death	1996
Place of death