CHANDIGARH, November 19: Punjab farmers, who are at present reeling owing to the adverse effects of the prevalent two-crop pattern in the state, now have an option of going in for tissue culture-propagated planting material being produced by the Nasirpur Tissue Culture Laboratory, near here.The laboratory has given an opportunity to farmers to diversify successfully into sugarcane and potato cultivation, the tissue culture propagated plantelits of which are being produced by it.The laboratory is also providing tissue culture material of Eucalyptus, Poplar, strawberry and ornamental plants like Gerbera, Chrysanthemum and Gladioli.Talking to ENS at their laboratory, its directors Teja Singh Tiwana and Paramjit Singh, who are both agriculture technocrats, said the laboratory had achieved considerable success in the propagation of COJ-64 variety of sugarcane. They added that in this tissue culture propagated variety, they had successfully eliminated rat rot. They said the plant seed was also cost- effective in the long run as its propagation was much more than that of the conventional seed.The agriculture technocrats said in case of potato, the laboratory was in the process of developing the pathogen-free seed, which was in much demand. They said farmers were expected to benefit from this tremendously.The duo said the laboratory was expected to produce a world-class potato seed after the visit of Prof Richard Villeux of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University to Nasirpur this week. They said Prof Villeux, a potato expert of international reputed, had come to Nasirpur to transfer technology and upgrade its facilities.Talking to ENS, Prof Veilleux said he had come to introduce the technology of virus testing for the generally prevalent viruses of potatoes, revolutionary new concepts and practises of producing micro-tubers from elite virus-free potato plantelits. The protocol for producing mini-tubers directly from tissue culture propagated plantelits and most modern hardening chambers specially designed for different climatic conditions.A visit to the laboratory revealed that the tissue culture propagation was being done in absolutely hygienic conditions. In the first step of the process, a plant media is made. This consists of various plant nutrients and growth hormones. After this, the plant tissue seed is inoculated into the plant media in sterile conditions.The bottle is then left in a special room where it is given the required amount of light and darkness to enable the plant tissue to grow. Following this, the tissue is taken out in the green house to help it acclimitise.Tiwana and Paramjit Singh said the multinational Pepsi had bought the entire potato seed produced by it last year but they would produce more to enable farmers to benefit from this technique. They said even the Yamunanagar sugar mill had bought one lakh plants of sugarcane from the laboratory this year.
