| Project Detail |
The project aims at improving horticulture crop farmers access to certified disease-free planting materials across India. This will result in improved yields, crop quality, and climate resilience of horticulture crops in India in the long-term. The preliminary target crops of the project are almond, apple, avocado, berries, citrus, grapes, guava, litchi, mango, pomegranate, and walnut. The project will improve institutional and regulatory frameworks to operationalize the clean plant program for horticulture; develop clean plant centers that maintain disease-free foundation materials that will be later propagated by accredited nurseries; and increase propagation of disease-free planting materials under the certification scheme by accrediting private nurseries, and testing and certifying their planting materials.
Project Name Building Indias Clean Plant Program
Project Number 57041-001
Country / Economy India
Project Status Approved
Project Type / Modality of Assistance Loan
The project aims at improving horticulture crop farmers access to certified disease-free planting materials across India. This will result in improved yields, crop quality, and climate resilience of horticulture crops in India in the long-term. The preliminary target crops of the project are almond, apple, avocado, berries, citrus, grapes, guava, litchi, mango, pomegranate, and walnut. The project will improve institutional and regulatory frameworks to operationalize the clean plant program for horticulture; develop clean plant centers that maintain disease-free foundation materials that will be later propagated by accredited nurseries; and increase propagation of disease-free planting materials under the certification scheme by accrediting private nurseries, and testing and certifying their planting materials. The project directly enhances the climate resilience of the horticulture sector as the use of certified disease-free planting materials makes farmers more resilient to climate impacts and reduce crop losses.
Project Rationale and Linkage to Country/Regional Strategy
To improve farm productivity, India has been investing in providing irrigation, agriculture extension, and agricultural inputs such as fertilizers. Yet, one of the major challenges in increasing productivity in horticultural crops is the spread of systematic pathogens (e.g. plant viruses). Most farmers buy propagated planting materials from nurseries to grow fruit or nut trees. Nurseries propagate planting materials from mother stocks to multiply planting materials while ensuring that they are genetically identical to the mother stock. When nurseries propagate from the mother stock that is infected by plant pathogens (e.g., viruses, viroid, bacteria, and a few fungi), farmers end up buying diseased planting materials from nurseries. Moreover, once farming areas are hit by viral diseases, the best practice is to remove all the plants and sterilize soils for the required period. Viral diseases not only prevent growth of fruit or nut trees, causing yield loss as high as 30% but also limit marketability by reducing product quality. More economically destructive diseases, such as grapevine leafroll disease, can reduce yield by around 50% or more. Because viral diseases are impossible to treat by farmers in the field, the key principle in plant health management is to start clean, stay clean. Still, in India, propagated fruit and nut planting materials are not tested and certified for disease-free status.
Addressing the impact of plant diseases on farmers becomes even more important due to climate change. Studies on future plant disease risks under climate change scenarios reveal that climate change is altering the distributions and impacts of plant pests and diseases. Because both pathogens and host plants are affected by climate change, the magnitude of disease expression could be dramatic. Also, certifying planting materials for the disease-free status is important because symptoms of viruses and virus-like pathogens may not be immediately visible to the farmers, and they need to be diagnosed through laboratory testing. Farmer resources and labor are used inefficiently or even wasted because visible damage occurs some years after planting. This deters further farmer investment and commercialization. As the economic costs of viruses and virus-like pathogens in horticulture plants are significant, the best insurance for a healthy and profitable farming is to plant certified disease-free or clean planting materials.
Impact
Yields, quality, and climate resilience of horticulture crops in India improved
(Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture, Ministry of Agriculture) |
