The Telangana government has requested the Centre to permit the movement of raw (unprocessed) seed produced in different States to Hyderabad and other places in Telangana for their processing and storage and to make them available to the farming community across the country for the next kharif season.
In a letter addressed to Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Saturday, Minister for Agriculture S. Niranjan Reddy explained that there were about 400 seed companies operating from Telangana and they have their processing plants and storage points here. Seed of various crops produced in the neighbouring as well as far-off States would start reaching Telangana from late-February every year.
Certification agency
However, in the wake of country-wide lockdown being implemented to prevent the spread of coronavirus the transport of raw seed has stopped. He further explained that apart from over 400 national and international private seed companies, the seed certification agency for export of seed to other countries under the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) programme was also based here.
Stating that Telananga State Seed and Organic Certification Authority (TSSOCA) was the nodal seed certification agency for the seed produced in Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Puducherry and Lakshadweep besides Telangana, the Minister said the seed produced there would also come for certification in addition to the seed produced in other States for processing and storage by the national and international seed companies in Telangana.
The Minister requested the Union Minister to permit the transport of seed produced in other States reach Telangana for their processing and storage since the seed companies located here would meet the country’s nearly 70% of seed needs besides exports under the OECD programme. He stated that the seed companies would get the raw seed produced by their contracted farmers in Telangana, AP, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and other States.
