Increasing the productivity in crop and agroforestry subsectors is one of the measures taken to improve food security and livelihoods of subsistence farmers. The lack of high-quality planting material and stress tolerant varieties are among the identified major constraints to greater adoption of agroforestry innovations. It is therefore essential to enhance the development of stress tolerant plant varieties and plant propagation methods with more efficient and rapid tissue culture technology. Plant tissue culture research and development started around 2001. Since then, plant tissue culture is one of the well adapted and practiced biotechnology tools in Ethiopia. The technology spread its roots to most of the research institutes and universities across the country. PTC research emphasized protocol optimization for micro propagation and pathogen elimination in economically and industrially important plant species including: banana, grapevine, citrus, potato, coffee, pineapple, hot pepper, sweet potato and cassava. Nevertheless, tissue culture application in major dryland plants and trees, such as date palm, is limited by several technical and financial constraints.