Govt plans 10 ‘Clean Plant Centres’

Subject : Schemes

Section :Agriculture

Concept :

With the demand for foreign planting materials of fruits like apples, avocados and blueberries rising over the years, the Central government plans to set up 10 ‘Clean Plant Centres’

About Clean Plant Centre

Objective: To boost domestic production of the selected fruit crops
Some of the services offered are disease diagnostic, therapeutics, multiplying of plants and generation of mother plants.
Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare is the nodal ministry for the programme.
Implementing agency: National Horticulture Board (NHB)
It is 100% funded by Central government
It will be set up under the ‘Atmanirbhar Clean Plant Program’ (announced in Budget 2023-24)
Significance:
Currently, it is difficult to get disease-free and genuine planting materials for horticultural crops in India.
Also, the process of importing plants is very cumbersome, as the imported plants must be kept in quarantine for two years.
After the establishment of the Clean Plant Centres, this period will be reduced to six months.

Atmanirbhar Clean Plant Program

The Program will be launched with an outlay of 2,200 crores (in the next 7 years till 2030) to boost availability of disease-free, quality planting material for high value horticultural crops.
The Program will aim to –
- Enhance the yield of horticulture crops,
- Disseminate and adopt climate resilient varieties,
- Protect the ecosystem through proactive virus and disease control measures.
The programme will be anchored by the National Horticulture Board (NHB) which in turn will set up Clean Plant Centers across the country and ensure the global competitiveness of the Indian horticulture sector.
The centers will work with the stakeholders so that they adopt clean plant seeds and nurseries.