These centres will be established as part of the 'Atmanirbhar Clean Plant Program,' which was announced in the Union Budget 2023-24 by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. "The concept of Clean Plant Centres is unique and does not exist in India," said a Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare source.
According to the source, 10 centres will be established for fruit crops such as apple, walnut, almond, grapes, mango, and pomegranate, among others, with a total budget of Rs 2,200 crore over the next seven years until 2030. The source emphasized the importance of the programme by stating that it is extremely difficult to obtain disease-free and genuine planting materials for horticultural crops in India.
Importing plants is a time-consuming process because the plants must be quarantined for two years. According to the source, this period will be reduced to six months following the establishment of the Clean Plant Centres. According to the source, the Clean Plant Centres will offer disease diagnostics, therapeutics, plant multiplying, and mother plant generation services.
The Centre will fully fund the centres. According to the source, it will be implemented in a PPP model in collaboration with research organizations, agriculture universities, and private sector partners, with the National Horticulture Board (NHB) serving as the program's anchor.
Over the years, there has been a significant increase in the demand for imported planting material of various fruit plants. According to a source, according to the EXIM committee's permissions for the import of fruit planting material during 2018-2020, 21.44 lakh apple plants were imported in 2018, increasing to 49.57 lakh in 2020.
The number of avocado plant import permits has also increased. Permission was granted in 2018 for the import of 1,000 avocado plants, which will be increased to 26,500 in 2020. Similarly, the number of blueberry plants that can be imported has increased from 1.55 lakh in 2018 to 4.35 lakh in 2020, according to the source.
PM rally not permitted at Meghalaya stadium because SPG deemed the venue unfit: Furthermore, banana, date palm, kiwi, pomegranate, raspberry, strawberry, walnut, winegrape, grape, guava, olive, peach, pear, and plum plants are being imported into the country, according to the source.
