Chief Secretary to Telangana Government S.K. Joshi on Thursday said over 800 delegates, including those involved in research on new varieties of seed, its production and quality, from about 83 countries would attend the Internationl Seed Testing Association (ISTA) Congress to be held here from June 26 to July 3 next year. Speaking at the curtain-raiser, Mr. Joshi said it was a great opportunity for farmers, scientists and officials of Telangana to make use of the event being held for the first time in the country as also in Asia for capacity-building in seed research, production and quality aspects.
Peter Carberry, Director General of ICRISAT, said they would help the Telangana government in every possible way to make the 32nd ISTA Congress successful.
Seed industry
Principal Secretary (Agriculture) C. Parthasarathi explained the status of seed industry in the country through a PowerPoint presentation. He said there were 25 seed certification authorities and 130 seed testing labs. However, only six labs were accredited by the ISTA and the seventh one being set up by the State government would come up here soon.
Further, he said of 500 seed companies in the country, over 400 were in Hyderabad.
Commissioner of Agriculture Rahul Bojja, Director of Telangana State Seed and Certification Authority K. Keshavulu and other also spoke. They also released the ISTA Congress logo on the occasion.