Jain Irrigation exports 1st consignment of banana plants

Mumbai, June 9 (UNI) Agro-technology major Jain Irrigation today exported the first consignment of tissue-cultured banana plants to Oman.

In the first year, the company plans to export 66,000 tissue- cultured banana plants to Oman.

The Khandesh (Maharashtra) based company thus has pioneered bio-technology export from India. Tissue culture is an advanced area of bio-technology. Jain Irrigation was the pioneer in developing this technology in India.

''Jain Irrigation has always been at the forefront of cutting edge agro-technology. The company spearheaded its bio-technology initiatives in 1993-94 with a capacity to tissue culture 50,000 banana plants. This initiative was met with overwhelming response from the farming community,'' said Ashok Jain, vice chairman of Jain Irrigation Systems Ltd.

''The company, with its continuous innovation and research, has augmented its capacity to a whopping 1 crore tissue-cultured plants per annum. This capacity will be further expanded to address the growing demand,'' he added.

UNI