Banana Commercial Tissue Culture Plant

Chandigarh, Aug 24 (UNI) The Haryana Horticulture Department has released Grand Naine, a Banana Commercial Tissue Culture Plant variety, for cultivation which will give a major fillip to the production of Banana crop in the state.

Stating this here today, Agriculture Minister Harmohinder Singh Chatha said the Haryana Horticulture Department had forayed into the field of commercial tissue culture plants and had started the first commercial crop of Banana variety Grand Naine.

The tissue culture plants of banana which were of excellent quality and growth were being sold to the farmers at subsidised rate of Rs 10 per plant.

He said this Banana variety was developed at the Plant Tissue Culture Lab which was set up at Horticulture Training Institute, Uchani, Karnal under National Horticulture Mission during the year 2006-07.

Mr Chatha said prior to this, during the last one year the main crops of Banana, Potato, and Gladiolus were tried for commercial production.

For further mass multiplication of the potato and banana, the mother cultures were being procured from Central Potato Research Institute, Shimla and Biotechnology Centre, Department of Horticulture, Karnataka, respectively.

The Minister said that the new technologies would prove immensely beneficial to the farmers in increasing productivity of their crops.

UNI