This farm was established in 1852 by Late Highness Shree Bhavsinhji of Bhavnagar State having area of 1529 acre. Thus, this farm may be one of the biggest and the oldest farm of our state. In 1947, this farm was handed over to Agriculture Department, Government of Gujarat for extension and nursery activities to bring more and more coastal area under coconut plantation through supplying the best selected coconut seedlings to the growers. In 1972, this farm was transferred to Gujarat Agricultural University to conduct the research activities on coconut and other fruit crop. From 2004 and onwards, this farm belongs to Junagadh Agricultural University.

The object to establish this farm was to bring fellow land of coastal area under horticulture crops like mango, coconut, areca nut, chiku, banana, etc. This farm also situated on bank of Malan River, and there was ample source of sweet irrigation water at that time and because of that large area of farm, it was covered under coconut, mango, chiku, areca nut etc crops. Equable humid climate of coastal area and evergreen with many horticultural orchards in the city and surrounding area this Mahuva city was well known as a “Kashmir of Saurashtra”. This status was maintained till 1975 and during this time, two dames were constructed on Malan River. But insufficient and uneven rainfall stopped the flow of Malan River which was running throughout the year. This has resulted in acute shortage of irrigation water. As farmers lifted more ground water for irrigation, ultimately resulted in brackish water and now it has became totally saline. The nearest city and railway station is Mahuva 3 km away and nearest district place and aerodrome is Bhavnagar 100 km.

Geographically this research station is situated on South Saurashtra sea coast with 21.50 north latitude and 71.50 longitudes with MSL is 24 M. The average rainfall is 500 to 600 mm. The soil is sandy clay loam with pH Range 8.0 to 8.5 having regular saline patches that tend to be problematic. Well water has also become brackish to saline because of ingression from sea.

1)      To evolve high yielding variety of coconut.

2)      To find out suitable plant protection measure against coconut pest and disease.

3)      To determine most suitable and effective, eco-friendly and low cost agronomical practices for the production of coconut and fruit crop.

4)      To introduce new fruit and plantation crops for the region.

5)      To supply the true to type planting materials of coconut and fruit crops to the farmers.

1)      Collection evaluation and maintenance of indigenous and exotic germplasm of coconut and fruit crops.

2)      To generate germplasm for developing biotic and abiotic stress resistant high yielding varieties of plantation and fruit crops.

3)      To test and develop new production technology for plantation and fruit crop.

4)      To produce and distribute seedling of coconut of varieties D x T (Mahuva) among the farmers.

5)      To develop farming facilities for farmer having horticultural crop cultivation.

To fulfill the demand of hybrid coconut a project Under RKVY 2009-10, “Establishment of Elite Seed Farm for Coconut D x T (Mahuva) seed nut Production” for large scale production of D x T (Mahuva) seed nut and seedlings successfully established at this station. Under this project total 1570 plants of coconut cv. Dwarf Green as female and 700 plants of coconut cv. West Coast Tall as Male has been planted during July-2011 and protection has been done by means of cement pole, barbed wire and galvanized iron wire chain link. It is estimated that this farm will produce 50,000 hybrid nuts per year from year 2018 and onwards.