About Clean Plant Programme:
- It is an initiative by the Indian Government aimed at boosting the availability of disease-free and high-quality planting material for horticultural crops, such as fruits, vegetables and flowers.
- Its focus is to enhance the productivity and quality of horticultural produce by ensuring that farmers have access to certified, disease-free planting material, which can significantly reduce crop losses and improve yields.
- The programme consists of three key components
- Establishment of Nine Clean Plant Centers (CPCs):These centres will offer disease diagnostics and treatments, develop mother plants for nurseries, and quarantine all domestic and imported planting materials intended for commercial propagation and distribution.
- Infrastructure Development: This includes setting up large-scale nurseries to efficiently multiply clean planting material. The mother plants produced by the CPCs will be propagated in these nurseries and then distributed to farmers.
- Regulatory and Certification Framework: A robust regulatory and certification process will be created to ensure complete accountability and traceability in the production and distribution of planting material.
- Implemented by:It will implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare through the National Horticulture Board (NHB) and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research.
