Vegetatively propagated crop species like sugarcane, banana, ginger, turmeric etc. offer a huge potential market for tissue culture but products of tissue culture are very costly. Low cost tissue culture uses pressure cooker instead of autoclave, rain water instead of distilled water and jam jars instead of costly Pyrex or Borosil ware. A laboratory producing just a few hundred plantlets per week can be set up at less than Rs. 600,000. The micropropagated plantlets are multiplied for one more generation in a nursery, under exclusion of pests, and the second or third generation is sold to farmers. The cost per plant is reduced drastically in this way
Current Status: Recently ARTI shifted Tissue Culture Laboratory at our Rural Entreprenruship Development Centre (REDC) at Phaltan, Dist.Satara
During this year ARTI has conducted four training courses of tissue culture at REDC and trained 12 trainees from different part of the state. Training period of ranges from 10 to 20 days, as per selection of the crops.
We give training mainly in four crops, Banana, Ginger, Turmeric and Sugarcane and also give Technical support for establishment of their own laboratory at their respective places.
After completion of our training, four trainees has established tissue culture laboratory as commercial activities.