Drive gets 5,000 seed varieties for registration in four months

Coimbatore: The directorate of seed certification, which is conducting a drive to register seed varieties marketed by private players in the state, has received about 5,000 seed varieties for registration in the last four months.
The directorate had called the private players to enrol the varieties they produced and marketed in the state last December. The move came after officials found several outlets selling seeds without properly specifying their characteristics, causing confusion and also loss to farmers.
Officials of the directorate, under director of seed certification and organic certification A Mathialagan, had been registering seeds marketed by private firms. By February, 83 firms had registered 2,686 varieties.
The officials were expecting 3,000 to 3,500 registrations. “However, so far, a total of 4,960 varieties have been registered. These varieties are new to us and we have now gathered a treasure of information about their characteristics,” an official said. “When they sell seeds produced and marketed by private firms, traders have to attach a copy of the seed variety’s enrolment certificate. The document would contain the production firm’s details, the crop variety, its sowing season and other characteristics.”
The officials have issued stop sales notices on 206 seed varieties that are yet to be enrolled. “This amounted to 156 metric tonnes of seeds that cost 45lakh. As many as 70 seed inspectors had been inspecting about 9,600 seed sales points in the state. Coimbatore is a major distribution point from where seeds are distributed across the state,” the official added.