Ministry of Agriculture asks States and agencies to be vigilant about suspicious seed parcels

Next the BusinessLine tale about Countrywide Seed Affiliation of India (NSAI) asking the Centre to set its organizations on higher notify versus Chinese seeds penetrating into Indian fields, the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare has issued an business office memorandum on the make a difference. Stating that unsolicited seed parcels can be a danger to India’s bio-variety, the Ministry has questioned State Agriculture Departments, agriculture universities, seed associations, certification organizations, seed companies and the ICAR to be vigilant about suspicious seed parcels.

The business office memorandum mentions that the Section of Agriculture has recognized the danger of unsolicited/ suspicious seed parcels in mislabelled offers from unknown sources have been reported in quite a few countries. “Since past couple months, thousands of these suspicious seed shipments have been reported across the world” the memorandum described putting organizations in India on notify.

BusinessLine on August 4 had revealed a tale ‘NSAI warns of Chinese seeds of terror’. The NSAI has not discovered any Chinese seeds in the Indian market to day, but had issued an notify on the foundation of an Global Seed Tests Affiliation (ISTA) warning on the entry of suspicious seeds in the Indian market.

“We welcome the government’s memorandum on seed contamination threats. The seed officers have been steadfast in dealing with this possible danger. We request the govt once more, to act in the similar way to control seed terrorism destroying the cotton seed sector, and punish these liable for acquiring unlawful HT cotton seeds in the state too” reported Indra Shekhar Singh, Director-Policy and Outreach, NSAI. He added that by enacting our biodiversity guidelines, the govt will control the ₹300 crore unlawful trade and send out a apparent message to all the other bio-pirates and seed terrorists, that India cannot be messed with.