The Hindu Business Line : ICAR affiliates to produce tissue culture seedlings

RESEARCH organisations affiliated to the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) would be mandated soon to produce tissue culture seedlings/ plantlets of various crops and supply the same to farmers, the Union Agriculture Minister, Mr Sharad Pawar, announced at Tiruchi recently.

He called for private-public partnership efforts and research initiatives to overcome the problem of non-availability and high cost of tissue culture varieties owing to which farmers were forced to resort to succour that are non-resistant to diseases.

He said the country has the potential to emerge as a major supplier of horticulture produce in the international market but could not due to a combination of many factors such as lack of cold storage facilities, quality of produce, processing and post-harvest problems. Over Rs 2,000 crore would be spent for various development initiatives under the National Horticulture Mission this year, he said.

Mr Pawar was at Tiruchi to inaugurate the new office-cum-laboratory building of the National Research Centre for Banana (NRCB) at Thayanur. He also released a new banana variety `Udhayam' developed by NRCB, sources said.

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