State Horticulture dept signs MoU with Odisha-based firm to operationalise tissue culture laboratory

KOLKATA: West Bengal State Food Processing and Horticulture Development Corporation Limited (WBSFPHDCL) signed an agreement with an Odisha-based company on Thursday for operationalising its sole tissue culture laboratory located in Nadia’s Ayeshpur. The laboratory has been lying in derelict condition since its establishment in 2009-10 because of a lack of technical expertise.

As per the agreement, WBSFPHDCL will purchase 10 lakh banana saplings every year at Rs 14.20 per piece. If the private company produces extra, it is free to sell them in the open market. The contract that was signed in presence of state Food Processing Industries and Horticulture (FPI&H) department minister Pradip Mazumdar and Subrata Gupta, Additional Chief Secretary of the department is for four years and will be renewed again for the same period if found to be successful.

“The company that has taken up the responsibility of making the tissue culture laboratory has proven expertise in this area and its unit in Odisha is one of the largest in eastern India. The laboratory will be run in PPP mode and the company has already pumped in Rs 5 lakh,” a senior official of FPI&H department said.

Plant tissue culture is a collection of techniques used to maintain or grow plant cells, tissues or organs under sterile conditions on a

nutrient culture medium of known communication. It is widely used to produce clones of a plant.

The applications of tissue culture are mainly for the commercial production of plants used as potting, landscape and florist subjects, which uses meristem and shoot culture to produce large numbers of identical individuals.

In Bengal, tissue culture is widely used in banana cultivation and the Horticulture department has to do this exercise from private laboratories. There is a demand for tissue culture of 30 lakh banana plants annually and the cost is over Rs 15 per sapling.

“This move will cut down dependency on private laboratories and save cost. Since saplings produced by tissue culture are disease resistant and the waste percentage is negligible, it will have a cascading effect on employment and production,” the official said.

As per estimates, the department will save over Rs 1.31 crore per year and WBSFPHDCL will earn a royalty of Rs 55 lakh in the first year.