Plant Propogation and Nursery Management

Nursery Registration ACT

For producing certified nursery stock, the fruit nurseries shall have to maintain a scion block, a seed block, and stock bed and shall have to use the propagation material only from these sources. The scion block means a planting of registered trees which serves as a source of scion wood for the propagation of certified nursery stock. The seed block means a planting of registered seed trees which serves as a source of seed for producing seedling rootstock for use in propagation of certified nursery stock. The stool bed is a mean of planting of self rooted registered mother trees/ mother stools which serves the specific purpose of producing vegetatively propagated (clonal) rootstock used in the propagation of certified nursery stock.
Supply of poor quality nursery plants is one of the major causes for low productivity of horticultural, plantation and other crops in our country. Government of India had constituted model nursery regulation act long back in 1954. On this analogy different state governments have also enacted their own state nursery registration acts depending upon the available crops and local requirements to ensure availability of genuine planting material for farmers. For instance; the Himachal Pradesh fruit nurseries registration rules have been framed vide Act No. 15 of 1973. As per contents of act an application for a license to establish a fruit nursery shall be addressed to the competent authority in Form ‘I’ along with a treasury Challan in original of Rs. 100/- in favour of concerned state Director of Horticulture, in any Government Treasury /State Bank of India. After completing all codal formalities laid down in the act, the license is initially issued for a period of 3 years and can be extended further after submitting renewal application to the competent authority 90 days before expiry of earlier issued license. Unfortunately, despite nursery registration act, local unauthorized nurseries are mushrooming in every area, which merely follow the rules and regulations. Poor or inadequate inspections by the agencies also favour them. A nursery should be registered for the purpose of providing quality seed, rootstock and scion sources. A nursery stock should be inspected, tested for genuinity to type, freedom from viruses, insect-pests and diseases.
Licensing requirements of nursery:

1. Any person/ person(s) engaged directly with the distribution of plants, plant products, plant material, nursery stock is required to inform the department, the existence of progeny plants and their operations. He/she should obtain a nursery industry license prior to initiating such business.
2. The aforesaid firm or individual(s) are required to renew their nursery industry licenses, each year or every third year as per local nursery act in order to continue the business.
Inspection of nurseries and nursery stock certification

• After receiving the nursery industry license application, the department or its representative shall examine or inspect all plants, plant material, or nursery stock located or grown on the business location or any other applicable location.
• The department shall conduct inspection yearly or at any time as it deems the best, with or without notice.
• After successful completion of an inspection, the department shall issue a nursery stock certificate to the licensed nursery.
Responsibility of the applicant:

The applicant nurseryman shall be responsible, subjected to approval by the department, for the selection of the locations and the proper maintenance of registered plantings being grown. The nurseryman should maintain register regarding time of different operations/applications, nursery stock of different varieties of a crop, in a manner approved by the department.
Location of planting
The planting location shall be subject to approval by the department and shall be in an area having minimum risks for spread of infection, pests by drainage, flooding, irrigation or other means. The fruit tree nursery stock being grown shall be on rootstocks approved by the department and shall originate from the registered seed trees or from registered stool beds. Certified nursery stock should be produced on soils that have received a pre-plant nematicide or that were sampled before planting and found to be free from virus, vector and nematodes. Nursery stock meeting the requirements, when sold, shall have the variety, interstock and rootstock designated, where applicable.

Refusal, suspension or cancellation:
Registration or certification may be refused, suspended or cancelled for any plant in part or all of a planting stock under any of the following conditions:

• If nursery is not working as per the standards prescribed by the rules and regulations of state government or Government of India.
• If the plants are found to be virus infected or there are off-type plants in the nursery.
• If a registered mother tree is found virus-infected after periodic indexing.
• If the pest control requirements are not followed properly upon inspection.
• If the plants have not been properly maintained.
• If the registration number is misused.
Civil penalties:

The civil penalty for violation of any section of act not already stated will be the assessment of a civil penalty, the confiscation or destruction of any and all plants, plant materials or nursery stock found on the premises or contained in the shipment in question and /or suspension or revocation of the current nursery industry license or any future operation privileges granted under the act.