India’s government has greenlit a major push for its horticulture sector with the new Clean Plant Programme (CPP), worth Rs 1,765.67 crore. This initiative will set up nine Clean Plant Centres nationwide to supply virus-free planting material and help farmers grow healthier crops.
Announced on Sunday, the program targets key fruit crops like grapes, oranges, and pomegranates. It gets a boost from a $98 million loan by the Asian Development Bank, focusing on clean, disease-resistant plants to transform Indian farming.
In Maharashtra, three of these centres will rise at a cost of Rs 300 crore. Pune will handle grapes, Nagpur focuses on oranges, and Solapur takes on pomegranates. The scheme also supports nurseries: large ones can snag up to Rs 3 crore in aid, while medium-sized operations get Rs 1.5 crore each. Together, they’ll churn out 8 crore disease-free seedlings every year.
The goal? Ramp up yields, improve fruit quality, and shield small farmers from pests, diseases, and environmental challenges. “This will strengthen India’s horticulture sector and support livelihoods,” an official statement highlighted.
The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) leads the technical side, building skills for farmers and experts. So far, teams have tested 578 grapevine samples from seven states. They’re also analyzing 535 apple samples from Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Punjab, including hazard checks.
A new CPP website is now live, serving as a one-stop spot for updates, resources, and tips to revolutionize horticulture in India. Plus, a national lab in Pune will dive into research on original plant species.
From January to March, experts from ICAR, the National Horticulture Board (NHB), and the ADB visited nurseries and labs. They studied operations, costs, and designs, then upgraded diagnostic tools and computing power. They even built a bioinformatics pipeline for high-throughput sequencing (HTS) data to spot viruses faster in various crops.
This tech will let scientists test nursery plants quickly and keep them virus-free. If initial tests on new plant material come back negative, it goes through re-testing before multiplying into mother plants for wider use.
With these steps, the Clean Plant Programme promises a brighter future for India’s fruit farmers and the horticulture industry.
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