Offering benefits such as saving space with less storage to preserve germ plasm, creating uniform off springs, reducing risk of pests and diseases, speeding up breeding , providing the ability to produce an endless amount of plants from one ‘cutting’, minimal daily care and allowing for year-round propagation, plant tissue culture has today become the standard for commercial nurseries and many commercial-scale cultivators.
Breaking the barriers of this exciting and futuristic industry is Horizon Campus, who now offers Biotechnology programmes in collaboration with Nilai University, Malaysia, to include ‘Plant Tissue Culture Techniques’ as a key module in its curriculum.
The comprehensiveness, industry relevance and high calibre of the degree has resulted in the programme being enthusiastically endorsed by the Ministry of Primary Industries, who has requested Horizon Campus to conduct workshops for selected staff from the existing tissue culture laboratories on low cost CSUP technique applied to pineapple.
Having recently concluded the first workshop of this nature with a resounding success, the Ministry has requested Horizon Campus to conduct similar workshops, with the intention of taking this technique to village level.
The workshop led and facilitated by M.D. Piyathilaka, Consultant, Ministry of Primary Industries, focused on best practices with special emphasis on high quality planting material production using low cost technique used for in vitro establishment, multiplication, rooting and acclimatization which creates an efficient and continuous planting material production.
The participants completing the workshop were awarded with certificates by the Secretary of the Ministry of Primary Industries, Eng. Bandula Wickramaarachchi.
Professor Sriyani E. Peiris, Senior Professor Horizon Campus, expressed “ With the increased worldwide demand Plant Tissue Culture will be fundamental for engineering different plants species in order to increase its diversity, lower the price of marketing, enhance the production efficiency and thereby increase cultivation efficiency. We at Horizon Campus are happy to lend a hand to the Ministry of Primary Industries to train their officers on low cost CSUP technique, who are already engaged in tissue culture, which can bring the cost of production down by 5 fold. They can apply this technique to propagate any crop species. Thereby they contribute immensely towards production of high quality planting material which we believe will drive the future of agriculture”.
Professor Peiris giving a further insight into their current degree explained that it is focused on preparing students for immediate employment in the plant tissue culture industry and developed their skills to examine, analyze and understand the theoretical and practical principles of cell culture and its applications as well as teaching them the diagnostic and problem solving skills and the scientific verbal and writing skills appropriate for the field.
Further information can be obtained by visiting http://ift.tt/2uMVol7, or by visiting Horizon Campus at Malabe.
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