ANNUAL REPORT - Department of Biotechnology

the reporting period. Out of these, approximately
20,500 plants have been dispatched to various
private growers. Approximately 55,800 plants of Aloe
vera were dispatched to private growers during 2006.
Over 12,000 plants of a natural sweetener, Stevia
rebaudiana were dispatched to various private
growers in and around Delhi-Gurgaon region. Largescale
production of medicinal plant, Swertia chirata,
was carried out and approximately 30,000 plants
were dispatched. Approximately 4000 plants of
'Lahul Bitter' variety of Hops were supplied to a
private group. This production was taken up as a
contract production order.
Micropropagation Technology Park, NCL, Pune
Extensive R&D was carried out on the
micropropagation of identified crops species.
Following tree species were selected based on
economic importance and requirement of user
groups-Acacia mangium ,Casuarina equisetifolia,
and Jatropha curcas. Extensive work on
development and refinement of micropropagation
protocols for economically important plants at tissue
culture pilot plant, NCL, Pune have led to
development of micropropagation technologies
which have been tested for technocommercial
feasibility by the way of large number of field
verificatory trials, benefit to cost ratio analysis and
technology transfer to industries. With a view to
generate awareness about the superiority of tissue
culture raised propagules among the farmers and
user agencies, small scale demonstration plots using
tissue culture propagules for horticulture crops and
forest tree species have been established under this
project. For horticulture species five demonstration
plots were established using tissue culture raised
propagules of banana, turmeric, ginger,
chlorophytum and patchouli. It was observed that
tissue culture raised plants showed higher growth as
compared to conventional plants. Growth of Banana
var. mahan was best amongst the banana tissue
culture raised plants. Two ratoon crops of these
tissue culture raised banana were taken. The
average yield was 30-40 kg/plant. The explants were
taken from these plants for tissue culturing by a local
tissue culture laboratory. These plants also exhibited
early bearing capacity and higher yield (30-
DBT Annual Report 2006-07
36
40kg/plant). This has lead to generation of
awareness among the farmers, that tissue culture
propagules remain disease free for 3-4 generations,
and exhibit early bearing, uniformity and higher yield.
In turmeric, the average yield was approximately
double as compared to the conventional plants. Two
thousand ginger rhizomes were given for field trial to
a farmer who conducted the trial near Narayangaon
Dist. Pune. Rhizomes with a weight of 7-10 g have
shown the highest survival rate.
For forest trees species seven demonstration plots
were established using tissue culture raised
propagules of Teak and Bamboo in which two
agencies, two research institutes, one farmer and
one seed company are involved. A field trial on teak
was carried out through Choudhary Plantation Ltd at
Raipur, Chattisgarh. It was observed that the height
of tissue culture raised trees was more than that of
local variety. Tissue culture raised teak trees grew
straight with fewer branches; hence the commercial
bole realization will be more. Tissue culture teak trees
had fewer branches on the lower portion and thus
expenses of labour for pruning can be saved. The
problem of nodes was also less. A clonal trial on teak
using three clones of tissue culture raised propagules
of teak has been conducted at Miraj, Sangli,
Maharshtra through Shree Swami Samarth agency
since June 2002. The plants are over 4 years old now.
Field data recorded during the year indicate that
Clone A and Clone B are exhibiting better growth than
Clone C. This trial has again proved that tissue
culture raised plants exhibit higher uniformity and
biomass.
A field trial on two species of Bamboo viz
Dendrocalamus strictus and Bambusa bambos is
being carried out through Kerala Forest Research
Institute, Thrissur. A total of 4000 no. of tissue culture
raised plants of bamboo were supplied to KFRI.
These plants survived the transporting shock and
have been field planted in the month of November,
2006. A total of 3000 tissue culture raised Bambusa
bambos plants have been supplied to West Bengal
State Council of Science and Technology, Kolkata for
field trial. These plants have been field planted in 5
hectare area and are reported to show high survival
rates and good growth.