Background
As a follow-up to the international workshop on "Tissue Culture of Economic Plants" organised during April 1994, UN-APCTT and NAM S&T Centre jointly organised the 2nd Workshop on Tissue Culture of Economic Plants in 1999 in Dhaka.

The 2nd Workshop came out with several recommendations including promotion, development and utilization of biotechnology on regional basis with the active involvement of participating countries. The first regional workshop on Plant bio-technology for South East Asian region was organised by the APCTT and the NAM S&T Centre at BIOTEC, Bangkok during October, 2000

The Technical Committee of the SAARC has identified Nepal as the focal point for the promotion tissue culture technologies in the SAARC region. In this regard, the proposed programme would contribute in synergising its effort to promote tissue culture technologies.

Rationale
Over the past few decades, there has been an impressive progress in the area of plant tissue culture and biotechnology. Application of these technologies for the benefit and well-being of mankind is assuming greater significance, particularly to improve agricultural productivity to meet the increasing demand for food. Plant tissue culture technology has played an important role in supporting research and development in the area of micro-propagation of desired variety of plants of economic importance, study and production of herbal medicines and genetic engineering of plants etc.

As the South Asian region share similar fauna and flora and economic goals, it is desirable that the countries of the region familiarise themselves with recent technological developments, identify strategies for technology promotion and forge regional cooperation to harness tissue culture technology for mutual benefit.

For further information, please contact:

Mr. N. Srinivasan
In-Charge
Value Added Tech Info Services
Asian & Pacific Centre for Transfer of Technology
Email: srini@apctt.org