65

Plant Cell, Tissue and Organ Culture 51: 65–73, 1997.

c 1997 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.

Commercialization of plant tissue culture in India

Suman Govil1 & Shrish C. Gupta2

1
Department of Biotechnology, CGO Complex, Lodi Road, New Delhi - 110 003, India; 2 Professor of Botany,
University of Delhi, Delhi - 110 007, India

Received 24 July 1996; accepted in revised form 27 January 1997

Key words: commercialization, India, plant tissue culture

Abstract

Commercial application of plant tissue culture started in USA with micropropagation of orchids in 1970s. It has
seen tremendous expansion globally from 1985 to 1990 in the number of production units as well as the number of
plants produced. With an estimated global market of 15 billion US dollars per annum for tissue cultured products,
even with exponential expansion in the industry, the demand far exceeds production, leaving enough scope for
expansion. This industry appears to be undergoing a pause in growth presently in developed countries as it is finding
difficult to remain cost–effective. In US, only half the production capacity is being utilized currently due to high
labour costs. In developing countries, with lower wage scales, plants are being produced at much cheaper rates.
Indian micropropagation industry, though a late starter by almost a decade, compared to its western counterparts,
has expanded exponentially from 5 million annual capacity in 1988 to 190 million in 1996. The facilities now
created are at par with the best in leading countries like the Netherlands and USA. To remain in profitable business
and to earn the much needed foreign exchange, Indian units need to judiciously mix steady revenue generating
items with unique speciality items based on demand in domestic and international markets.

Introduction non-seasonal production (round the year), germplasm

Seed is one of the astonishing innovations of nature
which encloses within itself a promise of life. In addi-
tion to sexual reproduction by seed, plants can prolif-
erate by vegetative methods of propagation. Scientists
have developed yet another means of vegetative prop-
agation in the form of plant tissue culture where plant
cells give rise to complete plants. This characteristic is
known as totipotency of cells.
Propagation of plants through tissue culture has
become an important and popular technique to repro-
duce crops that are otherwise difficult to propagate
conventionally by seed and/or vegetative means. Spe-
cialised and mature cells are manipulated to give rise
to multiple copies of the parent plant under optimum
aseptic environmental conditions and appropriate stim-
uli. It offers many unique advantages over conven-
tional propagation methods such as rapid multipli-
cation of valuable genotypes, expeditious release of
improved varieties, production of disease-free plants,
conservation and facilitating their easy international
exchange. The wide-spread application of tissue cul-
ture has a few limitations such as cost of production,
choice of crops restricted to species with acceptable
micropropagation protocols, reproducibility of proto-
cols, etc. As tissue culture raised plants are grown in
aseptic, highly protected environment, they need to be
hardened or acclimatized in nurseries before transfer
to the field.
Advancements in commercialization of plant tissue
culture and acceptance of tissue cultured plantlets by
the commercial sector have led to continued exponen-
tial growth within the industry in terms of number of
new units as well as number of plants produced by
these units.
The global biotechnology business is estimated to
be around 150 billion US dollars, of which 50-60% is
in agri-business and annual demand of tissue culture
raised products constitutes about 10% of the total, i.e.
15 billion US dollars with annual growth rate of about

*134385*
JS: PIPS No. 134385 BIO2KAP
ticu2401.tex; 4/12/1997; 9:47; v.7; p.1
66

15 per cent. This paper describes the status of plant

micropropagation industry in India such as production
capacity, geographical distribution, plant species pro-
duced and product types offered.

Materials and methods

The authors contacted a total of about 60 known micro-

propagation units to elicit firsthand information in
depth. The data presented in this article are based on
the
information provided by respondents to the survey
(personal communications),
existing literature (secondary sources) and
requests made earlier for Industrial Licensing (IL).
The data represent a large cross section of compa-
nies which are either presently operating or are in the
pipeline. No claims are being made here about the data Figure 1. Geographical distribution of indian commercial micro-
being either exhaustive or complete. propagating units

Analysis of data
Source of technology
Although Indian scientists are credited for reporting
several important breakthroughs in the area of plant tis-
sue culture, unfortunately, very few commercial units
in India have been set up with indigenous know-how.
Most of our commercial units prefer to seek the entire
technology package on a turn key basis and, in fact,
have been set up in foreign collaboration with M/S
Cultiss and M/S Green Tek, Holland; Microplants Ltd.,
UK; Centre de Recherches Agronomiques, Belgium;
Plantex, Australia and Agrobio, France, etc., with buy-
back arrangements for the initial period.
Product type
The existing commercial units can be classified by the
product they offer such as
stage II or stage III cultures in vessels
in vitro rooted plantlets, or even
‘hardened’ plants.
The product type largely depends on whether the
Company is equipped with acclimatisation and green-
house facilities. Indian industry generally produces
hardened plants for domestic market and in vitro rooted
plantlets for the export market.
Geographic distribution
The earliest commercial micropropagation laboratory
in India was set up in Cochin Export Processing Zone
under the name A.V. Thomas & Co. It was followed by
Indo-American Hybrid Seeds, Bangalore, Hindustan
Lever Ltd., Mumbai and Unicorn Biotek, Hyderabad,
in 1988. Regional distribution of Indian Commercial
micropropagation units is given in Table 1.
Geographical location of these production houses
is an important issue. The concentration of plant micro-
propagation units in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra
Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala (Figure 1) perhaps
could be because these regions
do not face extremes of temperature in summer or
winter and their day and night temperatures (diur-
nal) do not differ very much, thus considerably
bringing down energy (electricity) consumption for
air-conditioning and heating or cooling of green-
houses,
annual precipitation is sufficient
labour is relatively cheap and
the products can be speedily exported via Mumbai
or Chennai international airports.
Infrastructure created and performance analyses
Though Indian tissue culture industry has been a late
starter, the infrastructure created today matches with

ticu2401.tex; 4/12/1997; 9:47; v.7; p.2

 67

Table 1. Geographic distribution of Indian commercial microprop- Table 1. contd.

agation units.
State/ No. of Name of unit Annual production
City units capacity (in million)
State/ No. of Name of unit Annual production
City units capacity (in million) Kalimpong and 4 Ganesh Villa -
Darjeeling Kenibreed Plants -
Maharashtra 25
Universal Nursery -
Pune 14 Agri Technology -
U.C. Pradhan Orchid -
Vasantdada Sugar -
Laboratories
Institute
Andhra Pradesh 6
Florida Plant 2
Hyderabad 4 Biotissue Labs -
Cultures
Godavari Fertilizers -
Green Laboratories 1
Indian Tobacco Company -
Kalyani Agrotech -
Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories
Khushboo -
Secunderabad 2 ITC Agro Tech Ltd. -
Padamjee Paper Mills -
Godrej Biotech Ltd./ 10
Raj Agrobase Pvt. Ltd. 1
Unicorn Biotech
Western India Tissue 1
Hyderabad -
Tech. Ltd.
Delhi 4 Proagro -
Indrayani Biotech 5
Sheel Biotech Pvt. Ltd. 6.25
Kalpataru Irrigation -
Krud Consultancy -
Systems Ltd.
Services Pvt. Ltd.
S.M. Jatia 5
Pioneer Seeds -
National Chemical 1
Company Ltd.
Laboratory (Pilot Plant)
Tamil Nadu 4
Mumbai 5 Excel Industries Ltd. -
Chennai 2 Coromandel Indag -
Indo-Australian Golden -
Products (I) Ltd.
Plantations Ltd.
& Group
Maharashtra Hybrid -
Kothari Industrial 6.25
Seeds Co. Ltd.
Corporation Ltd.
Hindustan Levers Ltd. -
Coimbatore 2 Southern Petrochemicals 20
Microplantae Ltd. 10
Industries Corporation
Jalgaon 1 Jain Irrigation -
Ltd. (SPIC)
Systems Ltd.
SIV Industries Ltd. 0.10
Nasik 1 Enzo-Chem Laboratories -
Kerala 4
Pvt. Ltd.
Cochin A.V. Thomas & Company 25
Aurangabad 1 Nath Biotechnologies 3
Beena Nursery Pvt. Ltd. -
Ltd.
Thiruvanantha Costford Promoted Unit 0.1
Nagpur 1 Spinner Plantations -
puram
Pvt. Ltd.
Kottayam Phytoclone Laboratories 0.25
Akola 1 Maharashtra State Seed -
Haryana 3
Corporation
Bilt Treetech 6.25
Wardha 1 Saubhagya Kalpataru 2
Faridabad Indo-Dutch 6
Pvt. Ltd.
Gurgaon TERI Pilot Plant 1
Karnataka 9
Gujarat 3
Bangalore 9 EID Parry (India) Ltd. -
Ahmedabad Cadilla Laboratories 6.25
Rallis India Ltd. 0.1
Ltd.
Indo American Hybrid 5
Inter Continental -
Seeds (IAHS)
Sterling 5
Harrisons Malayalam Ltd. 10
Uttar Pradesh 3
Khoday Biotech / 15
Muzaffarnagar Agri India 5
Palm Grove Nurseries
Biotechnologies (P) Ltd. -
In Vitro International -
Dhampur Dhampur Sugar Mills Ltd. -
(consultancy service)
Rishikesh Kalindi Biotech 20
Harihar Polyfibres -
Punjab 1
Ballarpur Industries Ltd. -
Patiala Thapar Corporate R&D 1.7
Phytotron Agriproducts -
Centre
India Ltd.
Himachal Pradesh 1
West Bengal 9
Shimla Agrigene International 5
Calcutta 5 Andrew Yule & Co. Ltd. -
Pvt. Ltd.
Jyoti Tissue Culture 5
Orissa 1
Pvt. Ltd.
Bhubaneswar Regional Plant Resource -
National Agricultural -
Centre
and Scientific Research
Rajasthan 1
Foundation
Bhiwadi, Alwar Flower and Tissue India -
Sutton & Sons (India) -
Ltd.
Pvt. Ltd.
Tata Tea Ltd. -

ticu2401.tex; 4/12/1997; 9:47; v.7; p.3

68
the best in the world. In fact, Indian units have
an edge over their western counterparts as India is
blessed with diverse agroclimatic zones, rich heritage
of germplasm, excellent scientific talent and availabili-
ty of skilled as well as unskilled labour at much cheap-
er rates. A.V. Thomas & Co., Cochin, were the first to
put India on the modern tissue culture technology map
of the world in 1987. Since then, there has been an
exponential expansion in Indian tissue culture indus-
try, from 4 units in 1988 to 75 in 1996 as well as their
production capacity increasing from 5 million plants
per annum in 1988 to about 190 million plants in 1996.
Indo-American Hybrid Seeds (IAHS), A.V.
Thomas & Co., Harrisons Malayam Ltd., Godrej Plant
Biotech Ltd., and SPIC have established ultramod-
ern micropropagation facilities. The performance of
only a few leading commercial units is described here.
Indo-American Hybrid Seeds and A.V. Thomas & Co.
(AVT) have exported millions of tissue cultured plants
to Europe as well as released several hundred thou-
sands of banana and cardamom plantlets to farmers in
the domestic market. AVT have developed a cardamon
variety with yield of 250 kg ha 1 as compared to the
normal 70 kg ha 1 and can be cropped in two years
instead of the usual three years. AVT have also devel-
oped high glucovanillin producing and early flowering
vanilla plants through tissue culture. Cost effective
micropropagation system has also been developed in
tea and black pepper and plants are currently under field
trial. Being a plantation based company, AVT absorb a
considerable portion of tissue culture products for their
own use (Mohanty and Sastri, 1994).
IAHS has won several contracts from the Nether-
lands, UK and Denmark to develop new plant vari-
eties by somatic hybridisation, selection of somaclonal
variants, endosperm culture, in vitro pollination, and
embryo rescue method, in combination with whole
plant breeding. IAHS is capable of offering disease
screening and cleaning services for 40 viruses, 2
viroids and several bacterial, fungal and mycoplas-
mal diseases for 19 ornamental and 26 horticultur-
al/agricultural crops (Prakash, 1990). They had export-
ed flowers worth Rs. 14 million to Holland, Denmark
and UK in 1991.
Beena Nursery (P) Ltd., Trivandrum, offers high
quality and disease-free plantlets of orchids suitable for
the cut flower industry. Hindustan Lever Ltd., Mumbai
was involved in clonal multiplication of high-yielding
cultivars of plantation crops such as cardamom through
meristem culture, virus-free microtubers of potato and
had designed a bioreactor to scale-up the microtu-
ber production. Godrej Plant Biotech Limited (earlier
Unicorn Biotek) multiply trees and plants by apical
and axillary meristems and somatic embryogenesis.
Micropropagation protocols for 2 cultivars of straw-
berry suitable for cultivation in tropical plains and
conventional hilly regions have been developed and
over 2 lakh plants have been sold to farmers in Maha-
rashtra, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh in 1992-93 and
1993-94. Micropropagated banana, Chrysanthemum,
rose and foliage ornamental plants are not only being
produced on a large scale but also being exported.
Dhampur Sugar Mills, Dhampur and EID Parry, Chen-
nai are concentrating on the production of tissue culture
raised virus-free plants of sugarcane. Vasantdada Sug-
ar Institute, Pune, is involved in tissue culture work in
sugarcane.
SPIC Science Foundation, Chennai have intro-
duced sex-typed female papaya plants in commercial
tissue culture market for the first time in India. SPIC
Agro Biotech Centre is standardising protocols in cof-
fee, banana, potato, sunflower, rose, Gerbera, orchids
and tree species such as Calistemon, Simaruba, jack-
fruit, mango and datepalm. Harrisons Malayalam Ltd.,
Bangalore have developed protocols for micropropa-
gation of over 30 crops and all these plants are being
commercially produced for domestic and export mar-
kets. Protocols for cashew, mango, teak, rosewood and
tamarind are being developed.
National Agricultural & Scientific Research Foun-
dation, Calcutta, is engaged in large scale production of
Musa, Spathiphyllum, Anthurium, Elettaria, Platyceri-
um and orchids and has developed protocols for micro-
propagation of tea, jojoba, lilies, Gladiolus, Gerbera,
Ficus and Philodendron (Agarwal et al., 1994).
Plants produced
Indian units are currently producing fruit crops, forest
trees, ornamental (foliage plants, flowering plants),
vegetable crops and plantation crops (Table 2).
An analysis of plants micropropagated by Indian
industry shows that ornamental plants are the major
items being produced, in line with the international
trend (Figure 2).
Market
The market for tissue culture plants is huge, ever
changing, highly competitive as well as relatively
volatile and, therefore, needs proper planning, It is
estimated that there is a world market potential of 15
ticu2401.tex; 4/12/1997; 9:47; v.7; p.4
 69

Table 2. Plant species being currently micropropagated by Commercial tissue culture units in India.

FRUIT CROPS
Harrisons Malayalam Ltd. Banana, *Citrus, Grapes, Papaya, Pomegranate, Strawberry
Godrej Plant Biotech Ltd. Banana, Pineapple, Strawberry
IAHS Banana, Cherryapple, Peach, Pineapple, Strawberry
Nath Seeds, Bio Tissue Labs, Microplantae, Kumar Gene Tech, Banana
Maharashtra State Seed Corporation, National Agricultural &
Scientific Research Foundation & SIV Industries Ltd.
A.V. Thomas & Co. Banana, Pineapple
SPIC Banana, Datepalm, Mango, Papaya (Female)
Enzo-chem Papaya
Agrigene International Apple
Microplantae, Indrayani Biotech Strawberry
Saubhagya Kalpataru Pvt. Ltd. Banana, Strawberry

FOREST TREES
Harrisons Malayalam Ltd., Tata Tea Ltd., Thapar Corp. R&D Eucalyptus
Centre, SIV Industries Ltd.
IAHS Teak, Kadamb
SPIC Calistemon, Eucalyptus, Jackfruit, Simaruba
Godrej Plant Biotech Salavadora
Saubhagya Kalpataru Pvt. Ltd. Bamboo

ORNAMENTALS
Harrisons Malayalam Ltd. Foliage plants
Aglaonema, Calathea, Cordyline, Diffenbachia,
Ficus, Philodendron, Spathiphyllum, Syngonium
Flowering plants
Alstroemeria, Anthurium, Callalily, Carnation,
Cestrum, Chrysanthemum, Gerbera, Impatiens,
Limonium, Rose (Miniature)
IAHS Alpinia, Anthurium, Calethea, Callalily,
Chrysanthemum, Cordyline, Croton, Diffenbachia,
Dracaena, Eryngium, Ficus, Freesia, Gardenia,
Geranium, Gerbera, Gladiolus, Hydrangea, Iris,
Impatiens, Lilies, Maranta, Orchids,
Philodendron, Rose, Spathiphyllum, Syngonium
SPIC Anthurium, Calathea, Cordyline, Gerbera, Maranta,
Orchids, Rose, Syngonium
Godrej Plant Biotek Anthurium, Calathea, Ficus, Lily, Ornamental
Bamboo, Spathiphyllum, Syngonium
Agrigene International Ficus, Spathiphyllum
Nath Biotech Ficus, Philodendron, Syngonium
A.V. Thomas & Co. Chrysanthemum, Gerbera, Lily, Orchids, Rose
Cadilla Laboratories Ltd. Calathea, Lily, Spathiphyllum, Syngonium
Kalpataru Irrigation Systems Ltd. Lily
Rallis India Carnation, Orchids
COSTFORD promoted Unit Dendrobium (Orchid), Phaelenopsis
Phytoclone Dendrobium
Pocha seed, Khoday Biotek Ornamentals
Padamjee Paper Mills, Florida Plant Cultures, Green Laboratories Foliage plants

ticu2401.tex; 4/12/1997; 9:47; v.7; p.5

70
Table 2. contd

National Agricultural & Scientific Research Foundation Anthurium, Spathiphyllum

Raj Agrobase Pvt. Ltd., SIV Industries Ltd., Beena Nursery Orchids
Indrayani Biotech Rose
Kumar Gene Tech, Microplantae, Khushboo Flowering plants
Kenibreed Plants Cymbidium, Oncidium, Phalaenopsis, Vanda
Saubhagya Kalpataru Pvt. Ltd. Rose
SIV Industries Ltd. Chrysanthemum, Philodendron

VEGETABLE CROPS
Harrisons Malayalam Ltd. Potato, Asparagus
SPIC Potato
Proagro Brassica napus, Brassica juncea, Lycopersicon
esculentum (tomato)
Frontier Biotech, Hindustan Lever Ltd., Kalyani Agrotech, AgroIndia Microtubers of Potato (Solanum tuberosum)
Biotechnologies
IAHS Asparagus, Cauliflower, Cabbage, Tomato
Agrigene International Asparagus officinalis (exotic vegetable)

PLANTATION CROPS
Harrisons Malayalam Ltd. Cardamom, Sugarcane, Vanilla
IAHS Cardamom, Coffee, Ginger, Miscanthus, Sugarcane
Turmeric, Vanilla
Tata Tea Ltd. Coffee, Tea
SPIC Cardamom, Vanilla
A.V. Thomas & Co. Cardamom, Ginger, Turmeric, Vanilla, Black Pepper, Tea
Bush Boake Allen Vanilla
Dhampur Sugar Mills, EID Parry Ltd., Rallis India Ltd., Vasant Dada Sugarcane
Sugar Institute, Frontier Biotech., Western India Tissue Tech Ltd.,
Agri India Biotechnologies, Saubhagya Kalpataru Pvt. Ltd.
Kalpataru Irrigation Systems Ltd. Coffee, Tamarind
National Agricultural & Scientific Research Foundation Cardamom

*Plant (name in bold) being commercially produced by more than one unit.

billion US dollars per year for tissue cultured prod-

Figure 2. Number of plants being produced annually by a few Indian
Industries.
ucts. The Indian units are mainly producing plants for
export market under buy-back arrangements and are
at a disadvantage when compared to direct entry in
overseas outlets. There is a considerable increase in
the demand of micropropagated plants in the domestic
market. The production target of industry for domestic
market has increased from 10% to 40% of the total
volume (Kumar, 1994). Commercial units need firm
forward orders to deliver plants in a defined time sched-
ule which is a major constraint in a country like India
with a majority of small scale farmers. To remain in
market and to have a profitable business, units should
diversify, judiciously mix steady revenue generating
items with unique speciality products having different
peak demands to make optimum use of facilities round
the year and produce plants with exclusive production

ticu2401.tex; 4/12/1997; 9:47; v.7; p.6


rights. To win over the growing global competitive-
ness, we should introduce novelty in terms of new vari-
eties, disease resistance and commercialize endemic
ornamentals. Flooding of market with the same prod-
ucts (as indicated in Table 2) could compel us to sell
our products at low prices with less profits leading to
limited cash resources and probably the eventual clo-
sure of small micropropagation units.
Incentives provided by government
The Indian Government has identified micropropaga-
tion of plants through tissue culture as an industrial
activity under I(D&R) Act, of 1951 made effective in
1991 and has provided a number of incentives such
as reduction in import duty, custom’s duty exemption,
duty-free import for export oriented units, facilities at
airport and subsidy on air-freight and has simplified
clearance procedures. The units engaged in floricul-
ture can avail duty-free imports under Export Oriented
Units (EOU) / Export Processing Zone (EPZ) scheme
even if they sell 50% in domestic market and export
the remaining 50%. The import duty on live trees,
plants, bulbs, roots, cut flowers as well as ornamen-
tals and foliage plants has been reduced from 55%
to 10%. Import duty on seed development machinery
for soil preparation, greenhouses, pre-cooling units
and refrigerated transport units has been reduced to
25%. A subsidy on air-freight to a maximum of 25%
has been allowed for export of cut flowers and tis-
sue culture plants. Walk-in type cold storage facilities
have been provided for storage of export consignments
awaiting shipment at international airports at Mumbai
and Delhi. Custom’s duty has been fully exempted on
seeds, tubers, bulbs and cuttings/saplings meant for
sowing/planting. Tissue culture consignments are giv-
en plant quarantine clearance within 6 hours.
Thus, liberalised industrial licensing policy cou-
pled with simplified procedures and incentives provid-
ed by the Government would go a long way in helping
Indian industries carry out profitable business in glob-
al market and bringing in foreign exchange. This is
obvious from the fact that Indian exports of floricul-
ture products swelled from Rs. 738 lakhs in 1990-91
to Rs. 1139 lakhs in 1991-92 (cited in Appendix - I,
BCIL, 1994) which shows 50% increase within a short
span of 1 year.
71
Results
The micropropagation industry came to be recognised
as global profit making option in 1980s and expand-
ed exponentially from 1985-86 to 1990-91 when the
global annual production capacity increased from 130
to 513 m plants (Prakash, 1990). Of the 100 commer-
cial units in North America, five major units produce
15-20 m plants per year, 8-10 units had annual pro-
duction capacity varying from 2 to 10 m plants and
remaining 85% units were small producing less than 1
lakh plants per year (Zimmerman and Jones, 1991).
Of 248 commercial units in Western Europe with
production capacity of 212 million, only 37 produce
more than 1 m plants per year (Pierik, 1991). In
the Netherlands, there are about 67 commercial units
regenerating 62 m plants annually. Five of them have
annual production capacity of more than 5 m plants, 6
market between 1 and 5 m plants per annum, 4 units
cater for 0.5-1 m plants, 10 with 0.1-0.5 m plants, and
42 units yield 10,000 - 100,000 plants per year (Pierik,
1991). In Germany, of a total of 21 units, 4 have pro-
duction capacity of 1-5 m, 1 has capacity of 0.5-1 m,
6 of 0.1-0.5 m and 10 of 10,000-100,000 plants per
year (Pierik, 1991). Govil and Gupta (1994) reported
21 Indian commercial units in production in 1994 with
targetted production capacity of 80 m plants and 14
units in the pipeline with annual production capacity
of 60 m plants. Four units had annual targetted pro-
duction capacity of over 10 m, eight with capacity of
1-5 m plants while nine units with targetted production
of 5 m plants each were in the pipeline. Of a total of
75 units covered in this article, details of production
capacity of 30 Indian commercial units are available.
An analysis shows that there are 4 major units with
production capacity varying from 15 to 25 m, 3 major
units with capacity of 10 m, 12 units with production
capacity of 5 to 6.25 m, 4 units with production ranging
from 1.5 to 3 m, 7 units including 2 pilot plants with
production capacity of 1 m, totalling to 190 m plants
per annum.
A perusal of plants micropropagated by Indian
commercial units (Table 2) indicates that plants belong-
ing to the horticulture segment of the ornamental indus-
try are the major items being produced (Figure 2). This
is also the international trend as shown earlier (Govil
and Gupta, 1994). It is clear that of 14 units engaged
in micropropagation of fruit crops, 12 are producing
banana, 5 are aseptically multiplying strawberry, while
3 each are engaged in papaya and pineapple produc-
tion. Only 6 units are producing 7 forest tree species
ticu2401.tex; 4/12/1997; 9:47; v.7; p.7
72
leaving enough scope for expansion. Twenty four units
are producing a large number of ornamentals. A few
vegetable crops and some plantation crops like car-
damom, vanilla, sugarcane and ginger are also being
multiplied (Table 2). Indian units need to strike an
intelligent balance between product diversity as well
as quantity and should try to introduce novelty and
exploit commercial potential of endemic ornamentals
as new entrants. In fact, production by micropropa-
gation units is market-driven and based on advance
orders. The production of large number of ornamental
and horticultural plants reflects their demand by con-
sumers as well as their willingness to pay the higher
cost.
Globally, the floriculture market alone is supposed
to be of Rs. 750 billion level. While considering cost-
benefit ratio for identification of products, social and
environmental aspects whose monetary value cannot
be estimated, should also be given due consideration.
With the liberalised industrial policy, incentives
provided by the Government and demonstration efforts
made by the commercial units, tissue culture products
of our units are fast capturing domestic market as well
as increasingly becoming popular in international mar-
kets. Looking at the brighter prospects of the industry,
Government of India had fixed export target to Rs.
1300 million for cutflowers, seeds, live plants and tis-
sue culture products in 1995-96 (Kumar, 1994).
Recommendations
The widespread application of in vitro propagation
depends on its cost-competitiveness and is profitable
only when there is an associated advantage over con-
ventional propagation methods.
We should set up modest, commercially viable
units at appropriate sites taking into account cost of
land, construction, availability of infrastructure such
as water, power, sanitation, labour and distance from
airport. We should encourage horizontal technology
transfer from viable operating indigenous units rather
than purchasing technology from abroad. Import of
equipment needs to be minimised and costly consum-
ables like agar-agar should be substituted by ‘ragi’ or
‘maida’ and sucrose by Indian table sugar. In-house
R&D units and interaction with nearby R&D institutes
need to be strengthened to optimise production and
solve contamination, hardening and related problems.
The units should carefully select plant material taking
into consideration availability of stocks, reproducible
protocol with rapid multiplication rates, demand in
domestic and international markets as well as build
good market reputation by delivering quality products
on time. The micropropagation industry is particularly
well suited for a country like India as it is environment-
friendly and labour-intensive. It can really solve our
unemployment problem to a reasonable extent, only if
planned judiciously.
Conclusions
Blessed with diverse agroclimatic zones and availabil-
ity of both skilled manpower as well as labour at cost-
effective rates, combined with liberalised Government
policies and incentives provided, Indian tissue culture
industry, though a little late starter, is all set to have its
presence felt on the international scenario and make a
dent in the national economy by earning considerable
foreign exchange on a recurring basis.
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to the commercial microprop-
agation units for kindly providing valuable informa-
tion. Mrs. Suman Govil, is grateful to the Department
of Biotechnology, New Delhi, for granting her study
leave for carrying out this study.
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Govil S & Gupta S C (1994) Plant micropropagation industry in India
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