Summary report on 'Market Survey on Tissue Cultured Plants'
Prepared by Biotech Consortium India Limited, for Department of Biotechnology and Small Farmers' Agri-Business Consortium, 2005.

Micropropagation, a proven means of producing millions of identical plants by culturing plant tissues or organs under germ-free conditions, is an essential component of plant biotechnology.

India has pioneered a number of discoveries in the field of plant tissue culture.
Unfortunately, till a decade ago most of these remained confined to the laboratory. However, with DBT's initiative several plant tissue culture laboratories and commercial facilities have been set up, which are generating quite a large number of tissue culture-raised commercial crops and forest trees.

To bridge the gap between research and the field and also to testing commercial crops, the DBT (Department of Biotechnology), Government of India, took the initiative of setting up pilot-scale facilities for mass cloning, testing clonal fidelity through molecular markers and established facilities for virus certifications.

Apart from protocols, products, these facilities also generate information during different stages of research and production. In order to effectively disseminate this information and the benefits of tissue culture in India, Department of Biotechnology, Government of India has established this Consortium on Micropropagation Research and Technology Development.