On the inaugural day of the 10th Indian Seed Congress 2020 in New Delhi on Sunday (16th Feb) Minister of Agriculture for Uttar Pradesh Surya Pratap Shahi said, “Yogi Adityanath government is committed to fulfill the aim of ‘Doubling Farmers’ Incomes’ and quality seeds have a vital role to play in this mission. Our farmers by having access to better quality seed will increase their yields by up to 20%. Our government has bought transparency within the seed system and is taking strong measures to remove spurious/fake seeds. But the need of the hour is that, UP has to take a lead in seed production.”
He said, “Our government wants the seed industry to partner with us and work in UP. We want to create special seed zones in different regions across UP. We will be bringing out a policy soon.”
Indian Seed Congress (ISC) is NSAI’s annual flagship event. It is the biggest seed congress of South East Asia bringing together industry, scientists & governments from across the global. ISC 2020 showcases the latest trends and views of the Seed sector; voices their concerns; deliberates on new technological advances to tackle obstacles to growth.
Agriculture Secretary, Sanjay Agarwal speaking at the inaugural address, said, “The government wants to give a push to seed exports. For this we want also create transparent and simpler regulations. We constantly in consultation with all stake holders, and at this platform would declare that all export certification and permissions will be fast tracked.”
Joint Secretary Seed Ashwani Kumar said, “Bangalore is 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 be better quality seeds and even increase our share of seed exports.”
“We also have to develop new technologies to prepare ourselves against new disease and pests like Fall army worms, but these technologies should be safe and farmers friendly,” he added.
During the first day renowned scientists, agricultural experts and policy makers were present at the different sessions. These included Dr B. Maruti Prasanna, Global Director, CIMMYT, Dr K. Keshavulu, Director, TSSOCA and Vice President ISTA, Dr Kuldeep Singh, Director, NBPGR, etc.
Prabhakar Rao, President, NSAI said, “Like in the pharma sector, we need our government to engage and provide financial assistance to the Indian private sector to do more rigorous R&D in the seed sector too. 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.”
KS Nayaranswamy, Convenor, ISC 2020 said, “National Seed Association of India is an apex association of the Indian seed industry comprising the small, medium and large companies as well as public state seed corporations. It has more than 500 members from all over the country. NSAI works closely with Government departments for developing policies which would spur agricultural growth, the Indian Seed Congress 2020 on a convergence of science, business and policy.”
