The Directorate of Arecanut and Spices Development was established on 1st April, 1966 at Calicut in Kerala as a subordinate office under Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India to look after the development of spices and arecanut at National level. This responsibility was earlier shouldered by Central Spices and Cashewnut Committee, which was abolished in 1965 consequent to the recommendations of Agricultural Research Review Team and the Indian Central Arecanut Committee which was dissolved in the same time.

Presently the Directorate is responsible for coordinating and monitoring of development programmes on spices under National Horticulture Mission (NHM) launched during 2005-06 to promote holistic growth of the horticulture sector in the country, which are being implemented in 18 States.Besides, the Directorate is directly implementing various programmes in association with State Agricultural Universities and ICAR Institutes to supplement the efforts of the States.

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