Centre to set up Clean Plant Centres

To boost the production of fruits, the central government is mulling establishing Plant Centres. As part of the Atmanirbhar Clean Plant Program, the central government decided to set up 10 Clean Plant Centres in India.

These centres are aimed to boost domestic crop production. Many developed countries like the US, Israel, Netherlands etc., have such plant centres. The central government has proposed to set up similar plant centres in India as well.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the establishment of these centres in the Union Budget 2023-24. As the concept of a Clean Plant Centre is unique in the country, the government proposed to set up 10 such centres.

These centres will be established in the next seven years with an overall allocated budget of ₹2,200. The plant centres will be set up for many fruits like apples, mangoes, pomegranates, grapes, walnuts, almonds etc.

The demand for imported planting material has grown for the past few years. It was almost doubled. For instance, the demand for imported apple plants had risen from 21.44 lakhs to nearly 50 lakhs within two years.

A similar trend has been observed for other fruits like avocadoes, blueberries, kiwis, date palms and many more. However, procuring planting material from other countries is a cumbersome process.

As per sources, it is difficult to get disease-free planting material in the country. As imported plants require quarantine for two years, the process consumes much time. The establishment of clean plant centres will ease the process. Besides, these centres will reduce the period to six months.

In addition, they will provide many services. These include diagnosis of plant diseases, multiplication of plants, generation of mother plants etc.

The central government will fund these centres and implement them in a PPP model. In other words, the central government will implement the programme in association with research organizations, agricultural universities, and interested private sector entities.

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