National Certification System of Tissue Culture-Raised Plants(NCS-TCP), has been established by Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Govt. of India, to facilitate production and distribution of virus-free and quality tissue culture raised plants to growers/farmers. Since the 2006, it has been instrumental in building capacities of the tissue culture companies for producing quality planting material and also enhancing their market reach through a certification process.
Any company engaged in commercial production of tissue cultured plant may be considered for recognition. Commercial Tissue Culture Production facility (TCPF) with a minimum production capacity of 0.5 million plants per annum may get recognized on the basis of their compliance with NCS-TCP guidelines which is assessed by the Accreditation Panel (AP). Currently there are 78 recognized Tissue Culture Production facilities (TCPFs) from 16 different states. Since the implementation in 2006, NCS-TCP has certified over 250 million plants.