Plant Tissue Culture Technology offers great promise for the production of quality planting material which is disease free and true to type produced through micropropagation techniques. The need for a certification programme for the tissue culture plants is imperative since inadvertent micropropagation of virus infected plants will not only result in its poor performance, but also in undesirable spread of viruses wherever such plants are grown. Also, failure to use prescribed standard protocols will result in variations in the plants produced.
The National Certification System for Tissue Culture raised Plants (NCS-TCP) has been developed for the first time to provide support to Plant Tissue Culture Industry to facilitate production of quality planting material through tissue culture/micropropagation. The Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science & Technology, Government of India, as authorized under Section-8 of Seeds Act 1966, vide Gazette Notification dated 10th March 2006 is the Certification Agency for the purpose for certification of the tissue culture raised propagules up to laboratory level and to regulate its genetic fidelity as prescribed.
Tissue Culture Production facilities can get their material certified under this programme from Accredited Test laboratories as per prescribed criteria. Only Recognized Tissue Culture Production facilities are eligible to register for certification of their material.
An Accreditation/Certification Unit has been set-up at Biotech Consortium India Limited, New Delhi for undertaking Accreditation of Test Laboratories and Recognition of Tissue Culture Production Facilities.
Any Tissue Culture Production Facility, which is producing Tissue Culture Plants on a commercial scale with minimum capacity of half million plants/year, either for export or domestic market is eligible to apply for recognition. The production facility could be from the public sector, private sector or not for profit organization. The details of the National Certification System, Criteria for Recognition of Production Facility for submitting applications, application form and detailed guidelines are available on www.dbtncstcp.nic.in www.dbtncstcp.nic.in
Application for Recognition of Tissue Culture Production Facilities may be submitted at any time; the assessment process for certification will take 8 -12 weeks.
Applications for Recognition of Tissue Culture Production Facility may be submitted in the prescribed format along with the registration fee of Rs.1000/- (Rupees one thousand only) in the form of demand draft in favour of Biotech Consortium India Ltd., payable at New Delhi
HEAD,
Accreditation Unit for NCS-TCP,
Biotech Consortium India Limited ,
5th Floor, Anuvrat Bhawan,
210 Deendayal Upadhyaya Marg,
New Delhi-110002. Tel: 011-23219064-67
e-mail: bcildelhi@vsnl.com.
A soft copy may be submitted through e-mail and 5 hard copies to be submitted by post at the above address. The Accreditation Unit will examine and request for additional information if any. The desired inspection fee would be payable prior to the site visit on receipt of formal intimation by Accreditation Unit.
(Figures in Rs.)
|
Small-scale companies
(Upto 1X106 plantlets/annum) |
Medium-scale companies
(1 to 3 million plantlets/annum) |
Large-scale companies
(> 3 X106 plantlets/annum) |
Registration fee |
1000* |
1000* |
1000* |
Inspection and report preparation |
1000 |
3000 |
5000 |
Processing and Certification |
5000 |
5000 |
5000 |
Period of validity of Certification is Two Years
Registration renewal fee will be charged @ 25% of the registration fee
Guidelines on renewal of “Recognition” under NCS-TCP
Only Registration fee to be deposited at the time of Application submission, payable as Demand Draft in favour of "Biotech Consortium India Ltd."
