Updated on: August 22nd, 2024 3:36 PM

Bamboo Nurseries and Tissue Culture Laboratories

With a view to expand the cultivation of bamboo plantations and enhance the post-harvest management and marketing activities of the bamboo-based products, the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare has implemented the Authorisation of Bamboo Nurseries, Tissue Cultural Laboratories and Certification of Quality Planting Materials Programme. The programme aims at increasing the cultivation of bamboo by supplying Quality Planting Materials and encouraging the industries to set up new nurseries and boost the growth of the already ones. Agroforestry Centers of ICAR like State Agricultural Universities (SAUs), All India Coordinated Research Projects (AICAR), ICAR and ICFAR initiate to supply certified seeds and planting materials of both vegetative and tissue culture to the States to establish accredited nurseries to provide Quality Planting Materials to the farmers and industries.

Objective of the Program

The program which is implemented through the National/State Bamboo Mission aims at achieving the following objectives:

• Framing out an organisational framework to ensure the availability of certified planting materials of various bamboo species.
• Establishing accredited bamboo nurseries with advanced infrastructure, quality control measures, and technical skill
• Setting up procedure for the documentation of complete information about the planting stocks such as the name of the species, clonal identity, geographical descent and demonstrated quality lineage
• Expanding the quality planting materials accredited in the nurseries
• Educating Quality Product Material producers and farmers about the quality elements of the planting materials
• To evaluate, assess and accredit the planting materials with paper trails right from the production of the mother plant to the supply of planting materials to the farmers and the industries.
• Supervising the operations of the accredited nurseries and quality of planting materials through consistent inspections and renewal of accreditation of the nurseries
• Encouraging the accredited nurseries to utilise the superior clonal material produced through advanced and multiple techniques

Activities Covered under the Program

The activities covered under the program are as follows:

• Accreditation of Tissue Culture Laboratories involved in Micropropagation of bamboo plants
• Accreditation of Nurseries engaged in the production of Quality Planting Materials which are ready for use by the farmers
• Certification of planting materials bred in the accredited nurseries

 Accountabilities of the Bamboo Nursery Owners

The National and State Bamboo Mission has set out predetermined principles for the accredited nursery members and the other agencies involved in the production of Quality Bamboo Stock. They are as follows:

• Recognition of bamboo species and clones
  • Identifying the superior bamboo species with the introduction of DNA barcoding techniques
  • Collecting the certified specimens of Quality Bamboo Materials such as leaves sheath, inflorescence and seedlings
  • Involving the experts in recognising and selecting the superior clones of bamboo plant stocks
  • Depositing the best-found specimens at the authorised herbariums and research organisations.
  • Coordinating with the executives of the State Bamboo Mission in obtaining geo-tagging the plus clumps and species-wise locations of the clusters
  • Maintaining a proper record of geotagged species as determined by GPS instruments and marking on a map with the recognisable landmarks
  • Being a part of the quality control process by undergoing genetic fidelity tests for the Tissue Culture plants
  • Obtaining Intellectual Property Rights for the species in order to avoid the mixing up of clones and
  • Increase the mother stock of the clones
• Clonal planting material
  • Maintaining vital details of the parent plus clumps to set up species identity of the accredited nursery stock and keeping up the chain of ownership of the documents prepared
  • Labelling all the nursery stocks carefully to avoid mixing up of the batches
  • Establishing genotypic stability for the nursery stocks and get the materials tested for clonal trials at multiple locations
• Maintenance of Clonal Banks
  • Preserving the mother plants in the clonal banks from any kind of disease and infections under the phytosanitary settings
  • Maintaining the Nursery Log Book to record the treatment schedules and supervise the progress
  • Ensuring the quality of the bamboo stock during the certification process
• Quality of Planting Materials
  • Following a determined process in the nurseries to guarantee the quality of bamboo stocks
  • Cultivating the healthy planting materials with the developed rhizomes and tillers with green and healthy leaves
  • Religiously following the rules laid down by the National Certification System for Tissue Culture Plants (NCS-TCP) of the Department of Biotechnology while determining the quality of shoots, rhizomes and root system in the nursery
• Micro-propagation of Tissue Culture
  • Specifying the mode of plantlet regeneration approved by the Tissue Culture Lab
  • Properly recording the batch sizes of the planting stock and the number of cycles after which it was regenerated
  • Undergoing the Genetic Fidelity Testing for the Tissue cultured plantlets through any recognised Government Institutions
  • Maintaining the Documentation of Nursery on Chain of Custody (CoC)
  • Maintaining the transparent record of the transfer of the planting materials from the source nursery to the plantation sites
  • Obliging Good Laboratory Practices (GLP) as per the guidelines of the (NCS-TCP).

State Level Accreditation Committee (SLAC)

The Ministry has set up the SLAC in all States to monitor and support the activities of the Government and private agencies involved in the Micro-propagation and nursery operations for the production of certified quality planting materials. The committee comprises of:

• Head of the State Bamboo Mission from the concerned States
• Representative of PCFF of the State
• Representative of State ForestResearch Institute (SFRI)/ Horticulture
• Two technical experts, one each from the Taxonomy and Propagation with skills and knowledge in bamboo research
• Farmers’ representative and
• Members secretary elected by the State Level Executive Committee (SLEC)

Eligibility Requirements

The eligibility requirement, as stated by the Ministry, is as follows:

• Any Tissue Culture Production Facility, which is producing Tissue Culture Plants on a commercial scale with a minimum capacity of 5 lakhs (0.5 million) plants/year either for export or domestic market and fully operational
• The production facility could be from the public sector, private sector or not for profit organisation
• Application for Recognition of Tissue Culture Production Facilities may be submitted at any time of the year, and the assessment process for recognition will take 8 -12 weeks
• The laboratory should be fully functional in terms of in vitro multiplication as well as cultivation of plantlets for further assessment by the expert committee during the site visit.

Application Procedure

The stakeholders can apply for the establishment of Nurseries should follow the simple steps listed below:

1. Login to the NCS-TCP web portal
2. Fill in the required form available on the portal to generate an online account
3. Fill in the self-assessment form by logging into the provided credentials and paying the application fee as cited by the department
4. The fee structure for the registration of Tissue Culture Production Facilities are as follows:

• • For the small scale companies with the capacity of cultivation of 1–10 million plantlets per annum, the registration fee of Rs.4000, inspection and report preparation fee of Rs.4000 and Processing and a Certification fee of Rs.10000 must be paid by the stakeholders at the time of submission of the online application form
  • For the Medium scale companies with the annual cultivation of 1–3 Million plantlets, the registration fee of Rs.4000, Inspection and Report preparation fee of Rs.12000 and Processing and a Certification fee of Rs.10000 should be paid
  • For the Large scale companies with the annual cultivation of more than 3 Million plantlets, the registration fee of Rs.4000, Inspection and Report preparation fee of Rs.15000 and Processing and a Certification fee of Rs.10000 should be paid.

A copy of the signed and stamped application form should be presented to the NCS-TCP Management Cell at the below-mentioned address: Dr. Shiv Kant Shukla,

• Principal Investigator,
• NCS-TCP Management Cell

Dy. General Manager,

• Biotech Consortium India Limited
• Anuvrat Bhawan, 5th Floor
• 210, Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Marg
• New Delhi - 110002 - India
• Tel.: +91-11- 23219064-67
• Email address: shuklashivkant@biotech.co.in; ncstcp@biotech.co.in

The details of the NCS-TCP, criteria for Recognition of Production Facility for submitting applications, application form and detailed guidelines are posted on www.dbtncstcp.nic.in for the benefits of the stakeholders.