Tea and Subtropical Crops, Institute of

(full name, All-Union Research Institute of Tea and Subtropical Crops; VNIIChiSK), the center for the coordination of work on the technology of the cultivation of tea, citrus fruits, and other tropical crops in the USSR. The institute is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Agriculture of the USSR. It was founded in 1930 in the settlement of Anaseuli, Makharadze Raion, Georgian SSR.

As of 1976 the institute included departments of breeding, agrochemistry, agronomy, pedology, reclamation and microbiology, mechanization, the economics and organization of production, plant protection and agroecology, and agrometeorology. There is also a department of standardization, patenting, and scientific and technical information. The institute has laboratories of the physiology and biochemistry of plants, industrial biochemistry, radioactive research, and vegetative propagation of tea. There are branches in Sukhumi, Chakva, and Zugdidi. Also affiliated with the institute are the Kolkhida Experiment Station and the Imeretin, Adygei, and Adzhar experimental fields.

The Institute of Tea and Subtropical Crops develops and perfects the cultivation and propagation of tea and subtropical crops. It also develops new varieties. As of 1976 the following tea varieties developed at the institute were regionalized: Gruzinskii 1, Gruzinskii 2, Zimostoikii, Urozhainyi, and Kolkhida. Graduate courses are offered both at the institute and through the mail. The institute has published the journal Subtropicheskie kul’tury (Subtropical Crops) since 1939.

The Institute of Tea and Subtropical Crops was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor in 1967.