ANNUAL CONFERENCES UPASI holds its annual conference every year during September at Coonoor. About 200 delegates from tea, coffee, rubber and cardamom plantations from Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka, scientists from UPASI TRF, officials from different commodity boards executives from agrochemical industry and tea machinery manufactures and estate suppliers participate in the conference. A wide range of topics are discussed. Separate sessions on tea, coffee, rubber and spices are held. An industrial exhibition is also organised during the conference which provides a forum for the display of products used in plantations.
The UPASI Tea Scientific Department usually holds a scientific conference on tea, a day prior to the annual conference. The proceedings of there scientific conferences are published as Bulletins of the Tea Scientific Department.

PLANTATION CROP SYMPOSIA (PLACROSYM) These symposia are jointly organized by the major plantation crop research institutes such as Central Plantation Crops Research Institute, Kasaragod, Kerala, Indian Institute of Spices Research, Kozhikode, Kerala, National Research Centre for Cashew, Puttur, Karnataka, Indian Cardamom Research Institute, Myladumpara, Kerala, National Research Centre for Oil Palm, Pedavegi, Andhra Pradesh, Rubber Research Institute of India, Kottayam, Kerala, UPASI Tea Research Institute, Valparai, Tamil Nadu and TRA Tocklai Experimental Station, Jorhat, Assam along with the Indian Society for Plantation Crops. Currently PALCROSYMS are being held once in two years. The Research institutes host PLACROSYM in rotation. UPASI Tea Research Institute had hosted PLACROSYM on three occasions, PLACROSYM II in 1979 at Ootacamund, Nilgiris, PLACROSYM VII in 1986 at Coonoor and PLACROSYM XIII in 1998 at Coimbatore.

PLACROSYM XIII The thirteenth symposium on plantation crops was organized at Coimbatore from 16th to 18th December 1998 under the aegis of the UPASI Tea Research Institute. Mr. K. Jacob Thomas, President, UPASI inaugurated the symposium. Dr. A. Abdul Kareem, Vice Chancellor of the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University released the proceedings of PLACROSYM XII hosted by Rubber Research Institute of India, Kottyam. Dr. N. Muraleedharan, Director, UPASI Tea Research Institute and General Chairman of PLACROSYM XIII in his keynote address emphasized the importance of integrated pest management strategy in plantation crops.

One of the highlights of the opening day's programme was the special seminar on "Development, trends and outlook for domestic consumption and export of plantation crops". There were nine technical sessions on various disciplines and the crops covered were tea, coffee, cardamom, rubber, areca nut, coconut, ginger, oil palm, pepper and turmeric. During the plenary session recommendations/suggestions were made by the Chairmen of the sessions for consideration in future research programmes. Proceedings of PLACROSYM XIII have been brought out under the title "Recent advances in plantation crops research" (Editors N. Muraleedharan and R. Rajkumar, Allied Publishers Ltd, Chennai. pp. 476)

PLACROSYM VII The seventh symposium on plantation crops was organized at Coonoor from 16th to 19th October 1986. Dr. G.S. Dhillon, the Hon'ble Union Minister for Agriculture inaugurated the symposium. Dr. K. K. Krishnamoorthy, Director of Research, UPASI Tea Scientific Department and General Chairman of PLACROSYM VII delivered keynote address on "Plantation crops-Research and Development in the 21st century". Seventy four research papers covering various disciplines and aspects of plantation crop research were discussed in eight sessions. The proceedings have been published as a supplement of the Journal of Plantation Crops( Volume 16 (Supplement) April, 1989).

PLACROSYM II The second symposium on plantation crops was held in 1979 at Ootacamund (Nilgiris) under the auspices of UPASI Scientific Department. The symposium was formally inaugurated by Shri M.G. Raghava Menon, Chairman TPSC, UPASI. The keynote address was given by Dr. C.S.Venkata Ram, Director UPASI Scientific Department and the General Chairman of PLACROSYM II. The theme of the symposium was plant protection. A total of seventy two papers covering nematology, microbiology, entomology and plant pathology were discussed in six sessions. The proceedings have been published by UPASI as Placrosym II.- Plant Protection (entomology, microbiology, nematology, plant pathology and rodentology).