Journal of Scientific & Industrial Research Vol. 58, July 1999, pp 517-523

The Plant Tissue Culture Scene in India : [III] Technology Acceptance and Popularisation*

SA Bapat and S H Iqbal"

National Centre for Cell Science, NCCS Complex, Ganeshkhind , Pune 411 007 Email : root @ NCCS . ernet . in; Fax. No. 91 (2 12)372259

Recei ved: 10 February 1999

Despite the development of a large scientific manpower base in the field of plant ti ssue culture (PTC) ~n India ~ver the .past few decades commercialisation came very late. The main reason for this slow development has been the lack of poltcles which would propaga~e the concept. It has been only since 199 1 onwards that micro propagation .throug~ tissu e culture has been conSidered as an industrial activity under the I (DNR ) Act 1951', according to the Iiberalt sed Itc:nsmg poltcy ann~~nced by the govelnment. How­ever, for further development of the industry, additional targeted poltcles as also cit mate measures are reqUIred to be developed. A study of these factors and analyses of the market reactions , as indi cated by the Indian PTC tndu st ry, was thu s essentIal tn our ongOIng study 2.3 and is presented in thi s paper.

Introduction

The antibiotic industry owes its existence to a chance discovery by a medical researcher Alexander Fleming in 1928. A biological experiment for another purpose did not work as planned because it became contami­nated with a mould. This contaminant was a Penicil­lium species and the product that was later to become a commercial success was penicillin. However, the in­dustrial production of penic illin required further inno­vations over the next several years in biological and engineering equipment and production aspects in order to harvest significant amounts of the product. More­over, government support (particularly the British and American governments) played an important role in encouraging firms in extending the technical develop­ments to large-scale production4

. Even though initially, the industry may not have received sufficient incentives from the market, the government, by buffering the large technical uncertainties and economic ri sks, sustained the industry until such social changes occurred that the product was considered as indispensable . The penicil­lin process development case is an ideal example of CJovemment intervention and support for tiding over b

uncertain times of an industry based on a viab le tech-nology despite the uncertain acceptance of the product in the market. 'Communicati on No. NCCS - SP - 99 - 04

** Author for communication

Broadly speaking, the industrial innovation policie ' of any government may be of two types: one which pur­sues active targeting of a particular technology, and the other that creates a climate that is conducive for tech­nology, business, and market developments5. A demo­cratic form of government per se , has no financi al loss/ gain in the case of failure / success of a particular tech­nology. Failure of a project, increases knowledge / un­derstanding about the technology at the research stage. On the other hand, success would gain some laurels in the e lectorate and the Parliament; possibly some fame at the international levels.

The government and market constitute two compo­nents of the society representing fundamentall y differ­ent ways of allocating financial resources for the entre­preneur. Thus, it fo llows that their influences on the PTC industry as wel l as the additions / modifications in the ex isting scenario , as desired by the industry, be un­derstood. In this paper, the effects of the ex isting gov­ernment polic ies and the market on the PTC industry as investigated and perceived by us ,are presented.

Methodology Communications were sought with the industry as

well as various govern ment departments such as cu.' -

518 J SCIIND RES VOL58 JULY 1999

~ Li::EGAL AMENDMENDS

TARGETED POLICIES ---~ [PLANT VARIETY PROTECTION

,--- GBSIDIES I

~ (GOVERNMENT CJ ~ POST· HARVESTING

~ PROCEDURES

~ATE MEAS~ ~ .--M-AR-K-E-T-----,

~~ ~ INTELLIGENCE CQfC

~~--, MARKETING CHANNELS & INFRA STRUCTURE

MARKET DEVELOPMENT PROCEDURAL & PHYSIO ·

LOG ICAL CRITERlA

SEED CERTIFICATION

Figure 1 - Various types of policy decisions awai ted from the government

toms, plant quarantine, agricuiture, and forestry. Sepa­rate sets of questionnaires were structured for each group to obtain the relevant details. Discussions with some of the respondf.,lts were also useful in eliciting a c learer picture of the requirement~.

The aspects on which communi cations were initiated with the indus try included: current marketi ng strategy of the individual company, the extent of government in­volvement in market development and technology popularisation at present, cost remuneration of the pro­duce and problems encountered, current restrai nts in the domestic market, export related constraints , etc. Some of the views received by us were further communicated to the concerned govern ment agency / departmen t for their opin ions.

In investigating the role of the market, the consider­ations under study were mainly the cost and quality of the product, current market trends, user awareness , prod­uct perfo rmance and acceptab ility by the farmers . the attitudi nal blocks faced for changi ng the trad itional prac­tices of the users, etc.

Results and Discussion

An observation milde in our earlier study] re lated to the financial resource management of the industry was that the Indi an government has not as yet recognised the micro propagati on industry as an agricultura l based industry. The impress ion is rei terated in the present study. The maj or issues raised at the govern ment-in­dust ry-market in terfaces have been concerns over the li mited inputs in aspects such as grant of subsid ies, net­working of extension channels, market development and illtelligence, improved post harvest hand li ng, storage, transport, and seed certification issues (Figure I ).

On communicating these issues and the concerns thereof to the respective authorities / agencies, responses have I ot been very forthcoming from their end . There seems to be an imminent need to address these either as Ji rect targeted pol icies or in the form of climate mea­. ures. Targeti iig ind icates the direct identification of an impOrWl1l natIOnal priority for the industry by the gov­ern ment or its agencies, and the development of all ac­tive state role in its development (as was wi th the peni­cillin case ~tudy discussed earli er) . Cl imate measure

BAPAT & IQBAL: PLANT TISSUE CULTURE SCENE IN INDIA 5i9

relate to a general developmental role, which creates a conducive environment not specifically for one particu­lar industry, but one that benefits the industry in an in­direct manner. We have attempted to categorise the is­sues raised by the industry in order to facilitate an organised representation and discussion which follows :

1 Targeted Policies

Targeting of policies may be done either at the Cen­tral , State or District level , depending on the functions and powers of the specific agencies and issues involved. The various aspects that cou ld be c lass ified under th is category and which have been voiced by the representa­tives of the industry and aiso by interested end-users, are:

Subsidies (a) Planting Material - For some of the local markets,

there are subsidies for tissue culture planting seed material, issued at the District level, which have been availed by farmers to buy the high priced seeds of exclusive, improved varieties, and also tissue cu l­ture plantlets in the more recent years. Such schemes could be extended to state and national levels to ben­efit a larger section of farmers .

(b) Utilities (Power and Water) - Agriculture in India today enjoys a substantial subsidisation on power and irrigation costs almost all over the country. Thereby, the industry opines, that extending the same to an agriculture based industry is va lidated.

(c) Further Subsidisation on Air Freight Charges - Admit­tedly, the efforts of agencies like APEDA have, over the last decade, brought about a reduction in the ex­pend iture on air fre ight. Despite these efforts, it still accounts for as much as 9-10 per cent of the total plant costs. The industry feels that further sub­sidies are one of the essential changes needed to boost exports.

(d) Revision in Farmer Loans-Currentl y, loans to farm­ers avai lable for the cul tiv3.tion of sp cific crops are disbursed through several nationalised banks. The gu idelines for these sanctions are based on aspects such as proposed area under cultivation, seed costs, and fertiga(ion schedules. Seed costs considered in such cases are those of conventional seed !Tlater i~li.

Revised guidelines incorporating tissue culture seed costs should be drafted in order to extend the same facili ties to illterested farmer".

Amendments in the Municipal and Village Development Laws

Pollution control board clearances as well as land conversion policies for corporate farming, should be made simpler. The state governments need to bring about suitable changes in land policies enabling the cultiva­tion of large tracts of land so that modem technology and other inputs can be poured into the PTC sector as a step towards achieving productivity comparable to world standards.

• Plant Variety Protection

On the one hand, the industry does not have a ready access to plant varieties dominant in the international market because of the existing breeders rights in those countries. At the same time, due to a lack of such pro­tectionist policies in India, fostering the de\ielopment of new varieties becomes a futile exercise. Establi sh­ment and implementation of plant variety protection acts would assist Indian growers to create a special niche for themselves in the international markets. Moreover, spe­cial efforts should also be made to identify unique orna­mental plants that are native in India and which can be marketed abroad as novel products.

2 Climate Measures

Micro propagation is, essentially, a volume business and hence, the overall environment of the indust ry and market should be one that is conducive for large-scale production and distri bution. Factors identified as being essential for establishment of amenable conditions are

.. Market Development

The biggest barrier in delivering the products of ag­ricultural biotechnology to the fa rmer in most deve!op­ing countries today, is the virtual comp lete absence of market mechanisms which normaliy drive the R &D pfClgrams. Thi s becomes a very important considerat ion for the industry because the past has witnessed heavy losses, to the extent that several firms have been forced :owards closure under the burden of bearing the heavy investments for es (ablj~h ing marketing channels and in­fras tructure .

Marke <1Cceptability of micro propagated products may be considered under the fol lowing criteria / prod­uct speci fic< I ions :

520 J SCI IND RES VOL 58 JULY 1999

(i) Cost - Apex bodies to provide effective marketing support to growers and implement price support schemes already exist in oilseeds , pulses, and coarse grains. As in these conventional seeds, it is also essential to fix a standard price for the micro propagated seed material emerging from various labs in India. This would not only assure the farmers of a standardised product, but could also avoid the development of an attitude of un­dercutting in the rates by the various firms , in tum, re­stricting the growth of unscrupulous persons in the in­dustry who sacrifice quality in order to capture the mar­ket by initially quoting low rates . The latter mentioned phenomenon also exi sts in the export market; many com­panies are selling at rates which are lower that even the standard production costs . This leads to unhealthy com­petition as many times fore ign buyers play one exporter against another, leading to a downward spiral in prices, making a viable reali sation of costs impossible.

(ii) Marketing Channels and Infra-Structure for domestic as well as export markets, should be developed by Gov­ernment agencies . At present, th is is almost a total re­sponsibility of the individual company, the expenses of which are recovered from the farmer by appropriately increasing the cost of the seed material. In the export market , long-term orders are not placed by importers , therefore, production planning for the lab becomes a ri sky proposition by virtue of its being vulnerable to last minute decisions regarding varietal or crop procurement. Issues relating to delays in payments by importers and rejection of material on the grounds of damage which cannot be verified by the exporter have been experienced too frequently in the past and have affected the volume of exports being achieved .

(iii) Procedural and Physiological Criteria - Quite 0ften, micro propagated seed material differs from conven­tional seed in appearance, growth profi les, fertiliser and irrigation requirements, harvest periods, etc. All these facto rs have to be establi shed and communicated to the end-use rs to overcome the existing rigidi ty of accept­ance of the farming community, before sales can ensue. Thi s should be ini tiated by educating the layman th rough the establi shment of e laborate, comprehensive and so­phi sticated communication channels, inc luding the press, sc ientists, envi ron menta lisls, academic ians, multi-me­dia experts, etc . Government in terventi on to increase thi s acceptability could be benefic ial to the industry. National co-ordinated tri als in specif ic crop growing

belts would help in highlighting the advantages of mi­cro propagated planting material. Village adoption pro­grams could be initiated for increasing acceptability lev­els. Further, farmer education through public meetings, farm demonstrations, extension programmes, etc ., would prove to be the most important tool in extending the application of micro propagation to the grass root level. The acceptance of tissue culture would continue to be a problem until the yield advantage is demonstrated on a large scale. The educational and extension programmes thus outlined should achieve a smooth blending of mi­cro propagated seed material with traditional crop spe­cific techniques in the nursery and on the field. Addi­tionally, special programs could be undertaken by the industry, on a contract basis, for growers sourcing cut flower planting material; the same could be done fo r those sourcing medic inal plants and fores t trees.

(vi) Inclusion in Seed Certification Procedures - Direct checks in the form of government regulatory agencies in seed certification procedures could al so be a tool to control the quality of PTe raised seed material. If and only ifPTC raised plantlets qualify in seed certification programs, then a hi gher price over con ventional seed is validated . Certifi ca tion by central agencies would also lend PTC seed material a certain level of authenticity, increase the confi dence levels amongst farmers towards their use and may induce healthy com petit ion among the producers.

• Improv ed Post Harvest Handlin g, Storage and Transport

These issues are es pec iall y re levant to the export market, wherein , exporters report cons iderabl e de lays in obtaining the relevant clearances at customs as well those due to poor exi sting infra -structure such as avail­abil ity of refri gerated vans for transportation , cold stor­age fac ilities at the airports, lack of and unschedul ed cancellations of connecting tlights fo r transporting con­signment , etc. Such de lays lead to loss of consign­ments meant for export since the product is peri shable. A single window concept for c learances at airports for customs, wildlife departments , etc, is thu s, implicated . It has been suggested that the e laborate documentati on requ ired to be obta ined fo r every shipment could be re­duced to certain extenl by giving one time app roval s over a fixed peri od of ti me (3 - 6 months), espec ia ll y in shipments containing the same pl ant spec ies from the same lab within the st ipul ated time peri od. Further, ex-

BAPAT & IQBAL: PLANT TISSUE CULTURE SCENE IN INDIA 521

porters also have to contend with the reluctance of air­lines to carry perishable commodities, rough handling of the fragile , live material by the customs and air cargo personnel, that very often leads to a degradation in qual­ity. The poor quality of exports leads to differences over the recovery of outstanding dues, since importers con­tend that payments for deliveries involving damaged con­signments cannot be claimed.

When the above mentioned aspects were communi­cated to some of the involved authorities, they accepted the same (surprisingly quite candidly), and have sug­gested ways of eliminating these problems. Improve­ment of phyto-sanitary procedures is one of the main aspects on which further interest should be focused , since at present, consignments are subjected to mere visual observation. These authorities have even sug­gested that since the Plant Quarantine Stations involved lack sufficient facilities to detect disease and insects of quarantine importance, some of the local R&D labs could be contacted for handling such work . Further, such labs should also undertake development of easier yet sensitive diagnostic procedures which has become a need of the day considering the large volume of exports possible.

• Market intelligence

Market surveys are generally done with two objec­tives : (i) Measuring consumer or end-user attitudes / accept­

ability towards a new product. (i i) Identifying the needs for the development of new

products.

Such exercises usually arrive at figures which are computations of the total existing market, and not re­ally, the fraction of the market willing to change over the newer concepts of tissue culture products. Thus, it has been experienced by individual firms that the mar­ket est imation exercises done prior to business estab­lishment loses its relevance at the time when the prod­uct is actuall y ready for release. This holds tme for both the domestic as well as international markets. It is commercially non-viable for each company to moni tor the changing market profiles until that time when the confidence levels of the consumers concerning the ad­vantages of micro propagated products are established . Government intervent ion to undertake such acti vities,

at least, in the initial phases is essential. Most entrepre­neurs today do not have access to primary markets, it is the middleman who largely benefits in marketing the production from the Indian tissue culture labs. Thus, personnel should be appointed to monitor various as­pects of the markets, especially those concerning the identification of germplasm as per local and international demands as well as resolving the routine problems as­sociated with rejection of consignments, recovery of payments, etc.

Further, product obsolence is an additional aspect for which market intelligence is necessary. This is espe­cially true in the case of ornamentals wherein assistance in identifying the relevant varieties / crops is a prime need of the industry today in order to avoid unneces-

. sary competition. The government should also con­sider the competition from some of the other develop­ing countries besides India, which not only have the ob­vious advantage of lower labour costs, but also have formulated more conducive national policies for bio­technological ventures . Measures should be taken as early as possible on such issues . All this requires con­siderable efforts and expenses, individual units are not in a position to afford this. The government should en­courage the formation of co-operative bodies to carry out market intelligence and related activities, and in­volving the support from all involved agencies.

Conclusions

The establishment of infra-structure for R&D in the form of dust and contamination free rooms with con­trolled temperature and at least 10 - 15 Y of sustained efforts to support a group of talented scientists have, among other aspects of R&D, been recognised as be­ing function s of the government. A beginning has also been made to establish the various parameters invo lved in the scale-up of bench-scale protocols to production scales, by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) , of the Government of India. It is a matter of national pride that a government department has had this foresight. Ex­tending the same logic further, the creation of ideal en­virons to educate and provide extension services fo r popularisation of the developed technology, is an as­pect that should be prioritised by the government. Un­fortunately, thi s has so far been largely overlooked in the Indian context.

Prior to the Seventh Five Year Plan , the main priori ­ties of the Ministry of Agricul ture were food produc-.

522 J SCI IND RES VOL 58 JULY 1999

tion and national self-sufficiency6. Horticulture, green­house cultivation of crops, and tissue cuiture were given recognition only in the consequent Five Year Plans . Hor­ticulture has received a major boost as a result of this recognition, especia lly with the formati on of the Na­tional Horticultural Board (NHB ). The NHB also ex­tends support to greenhouse culti vation in the form of subsidies for greenhouse erection ; simil ar subsidi sation is also made avai lab le by some State Agricultural De­partments. Unfortunately, the same extent of assistance has not been given to tissue culture.

The market awareness of the benefits of tissue cul­ture, even today, remain s poor. In fact, probably tissue culture deserves to be prioritised as, the produce of hor­ticulture and greenhouse technologies are mainly con­sumer ilems with a fairly large market, whereas the end­users in case of ti ssue culture are the farmers . Thus, the levying of various duties and unavailability of suffi­cient financ ial assistance to the industry, increases the product ion cost of the product, which is ultimately borne by the farmer. This seems to be against some of the na­tional objectives so far, since, a significant share of ag­ricultural sales in India is based on the legacy of the post-independence welfare state, i.e ., national policies fo r boosting agriculture by prov iding subsidies for plant­ing materia l and fertili sers at the di strict level, ex ten­sion of credit facilit ies through nationalised banks, etc . The degree to which ti ssue culture can establi sh itself as a vibrant sector depends crucially on the recognition of thi s activity as an agri-based one, at the various lev­els of governance. On a macro leve l, the loss to the gov­ernment for extending subsidies to micro propagation products would not be too great. Whatever losses are incurred, could be considered as the cost of improving productivity. Effective ly, thi s increase in productivity, in the long-run , would more than offset the incurred costs.

The government can also initiate a program involv­ing the TC industry for mu ltiplication of reg ion specific vari eties and couple it with a centrally sponsored sub­sidy simil ar to that adopted for the fertiliser industry, viz. cert ification by State Government offic ials and di­rect paymen t to the industry by the Central Governmen t. Unfortunately, the work of most of the in volved gov­ernment departments is done in waterti ght compart­ments, more on an ad hoc basis with no real exchange of ideas or work-plans. Most officials themselves are not aware of the detail s of the technology and the ben-

efits / limitations therein ; hence, polic ies cannot be drawn up in a way that is conducive for progress. It thereby becomes essential to primarily educate and ori­ent the concerned officials in the appropriate govell1-ment departments in order to overcome the indifference to the possi ble applications of micro-propagati on for Indian agriculture and make obvious the real problems within the TC business to the concerned policy makers.

The PTC industry, to a certain extent, represents the transformation of a traditional economy into a modern one by the application of biotechnology. This sounds quite progressive, and i. projected as being one of the needs of the developing countries. However, the increas­ing dependency th at is created on the commodity mar­ket should be critically examined at all times . Sales to­day, in the PTC industry are, at best, steady rather than spectacular. It should be reali sed that PTC is not really an elitist activity, but represents an industry which gen­erates employment, exports, and increased producti vity - issues relevant to improving the national economy. Against the backdrop of the regional imbalances in ag­ricultural developments, the vast domestic market po­tential still remains untapped and should be aimed at with a more sci entific and planned ut ilisati on of re­sources. Most companies agree that there is no major threat of competition, however, the product co -, may prove to make the market pess imistic towa rds receiving such type of seed material.

The trend of ti ssue culture companies to produce the same species has to a certain ex tent , saturated the mar­ket due to lack of product diversification . The major difficulties in expanding propagation tech niques to new varieties are the high production costs, lack of in fra­structure for conducting co-ordinated trials of tissue culture plant lets , and an attitude of the industry to cash in on a proven spec ies. More products in smaller quan­tities means a hi gh plantlet cost; while a lesser number of products in large qu antities indicates an increased ri sk and consequent pressures of the market to use these prod­ucts. A balance needs to be maintained between prod­uct diversi ty, quantity and cost. Continuing along this line of thinking, we arrive at the argument of mark et­driven technology development vs. technology-driven market. There is no conclusive outco me as far as the PTC industry is concerned ; both the trends have been observed in the indu stry - the exclu sive propagation of a limited number of horticultural and omamenta l spe­c ies is witness to the fo rmer, while the latter is ev inced

r

BAPAT & IQBAL: PLANT TISSUE CULTURE SCENE IN INDIA 523

by the appearance of various ornamental species that are new to the Indian markets, but lack the quality stan­dards demanded by international auction houses.

Lastly, if PTC is considered as one of the solutions towards increasing agri-productivity in India, then it must reach the small-scale farmer. Extension services are essentially, lab-to-land programs. In the post-Inde­pendence era of modem India, agricultural extension has been recognised for increasing agricultural production and productivity6. In the 1950s, emphasis was placed

. on the mUlti-purpose village extension worker. Since then, the extension system has been professionalised with a single line of command and systematisation of field visits and training programs. In today's context, it becomes imminent to include PTC in such extention programmes. Extension organisations / societies should also not serve as black holes into which technology, on perfection and emergence, eventually disappears . Estab­lishment of training and education links to extension workers is essential, since it is this work force who pro­mote whatever technology comes down to them; even if it is not adapted to local conditions. Equally important is the trickle of information from the farmer, that would

r serve to drive further R&D programmes.

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to express their thanks and acknow l­edge the financial assistance for this study under the

CSIR-Emeritus Scientist Scheme. We also wish to thank the Director, National, Centre for Cell Sciences, for extending all the facilities required for the study. Further, the views expressed openly by personnel from government institutions and agencies as well as the tis­sue culture industry and market agencies are dulyac­knowledged.

References

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2 Bapat SA & Iqbal SH, The Plant Tissue Culture Scene in India : [I] Identifi cation of Grey Areas in Communi­cation (Research and Industry), J Sci Ind Res, 57 ( 1998) 357 - 364.

3 Bapat SA & Iqbal SH, The Pl ant Tissue Culture Scene in India : [II] Financial Considerations for Technology Sustainability, J Sci Ind Res, 58 (1999) 89-95.

4 McKel vey M, Evo Lutionary Innovations (Oxford University Press Inc. , New York) 1996.

5 Daly P, Th e Biotechnology Business: A Strategic Analysis [Frances Pinter (Publishers) Ltd . London] 1985 .

6 Yitth al Babu Y, Trade and Technology Directory of In dia

(Printograph Press, New Delhi) 1991.