Supplying quality seeds to farmers should be the focus area: Niranjan Reddy
Hyderabad: Supplying quality seed to farmers should remain the focus area for all the stakeholders in the seed production sector, Agriculture Minister S Niranjan Reddy said on Tuesday. He emphasised the need to increase food production through supply of quality seed to farmers by working with the objective of ‘Zero Hunger by 2030’. Speaking at […]
Hyderabad: Supplying quality seed to farmers should remain the focus area for all the stakeholders in the seed production sector, Agriculture Minister S Niranjan Reddy said on Tuesday. He emphasised the need to increase food production through supply of quality seed to farmers by working with the objective of ‘Zero Hunger by 2030’.
Speaking at the 33rd International Seed Testing Association (ISTA) Congress in Cairo, the Minister said India was one of the emerging seed industries in the world. “There is a need for strict regulations for all countries to produce quality seed to enable farmers achieve high agricultural production,” he said.
While over 800 million people across the world are facing food crisis, another two billion people are suffering from malnutrition. Only through supply of quality seed to farmers can one end world hunger as well as malnutrition, he added.
“Research and investments in the agriculture sector will be a waste until good quality seed are made available to the farmers. ISTA as an International seed body should take necessary steps to improve standards for seed sampling and testing methods, in a step to achieve Zero Hunger by 2030,” he stated.
Stating that Telangana was ready to partner with the ISTA in producing quality seed, Niranjan Reddy said as an agrarian economy with a wide range of crops, India was one of the fastest growing countries in seed production. India’s seed production is fifth largest in the world with a growth rate of 12-15 per cent against the international growth rate of five per cent, he pointed out. Telangana which accounts for nearly one-third of the country’s seed production grew by about 85 per cent between 2014-15 and 2020-21, he added.
“Under the leadership of Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao, top priority has been given to the seed industry even as Telangana agriculture production increased to 38.3 million metric tonnes in 2020-21 from 20.7 million metric tonnes in 2014-15,” the Minister said.
ISTA former president Dr Craig R McGill, general secretary Andreas Wais and Telangana State Seeds Development Corporation managing director and ISTA vice-president K Keshavulu and others also participated.
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