UP to develop special seed zones: State Agriculture Minister

February 19, 2020 Gubba Seed In E News

Seed quality can help to enhance yields and farmers’ income
Uttar Pradesh government is working to create special seed zones across the State to make quality seeds available to its farmers, said State Agriculture Minister Surya Pratap Shahi .
Quality seeds have a vital role in doubling farmers’ income. Yields can go up by up to 20 per cent if they use better quality seeds. The government has taken steps to weed out spurious seeds by introducing barcodes on seed packets, Shashi said at the inaugural function of the Indian Seed Congress 2020 here.
The congress is being organised by National Seed Association of India (NSAI) which is an apex association of the Indian seed industry with more than 500 members comprising small, medium and large companies as well as State seed corporations.
The UP Minister also said that the State government is in the process of setting up agri export zones in different parts of the State. “India needs a new revolution in agriculture to take our great nation into a new horizon of more farm productivity, better income for her farmers and sustainable use of resources. There can be no better platform than the Indian Seed Congress 2020 to start this journey, Shahi said.
Agricultural Secretary Sanjay Agarwal, also present on the occasion, said the Centre wants to give a push to seed exports. “We want to also create transparent and simpler regulations. We are constantly in consultation with stake holders, and at this platform would declare that all export certification and permissions will be fast tracked,” Agarwal said.
NSAI President Prabhakar Rao urged the government to engage and provide financial assistance to private sector to do more research and development in the seed sector, just the way it has supported the pharma sector. “The government needs to give stimulus to sector and increase the ease of doing business even for small and medium companies. The smaller and medium companies through this can venture into research. But the biggest gain will be to Indian farmers as they will have access to better quality seeds and this gain will be sustained by a blooming seed sector based on R&D,” Rao said.
“Bengaluru is a very important seed hub, similarly we want the seed hubs to emerge in every agro-climatic zone in the country. Through this step farmers will get better quality seeds and even increase our share of seed exports,” said Ashwani Kumar, Joint Secretary (Seeds) at Agriculture Ministry.

Source : thehindubusinessline

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