The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare plans to introduce an online seed certification system and also a bar and QR coding system for cotton seed packets in all the States from the coming kharif.
On a visit
Assistant Commissioner in the seeds wing of MoA, D.K. Srivatsava, disclosed this on Tuesday at a meeting with the officials of Agriculture Department and Telangana State Seed and Organic Certification Authority. A team of MoA officials was here to study the online seed certification system that was implemented by Telangana in 2016.
Complimenting the officials of TSSOCA and Agriculture Department for making Telangana the first State to introduce the online seed certification system, Mr. Srivatsava said the Ministry was planning to introduce online seed certification in all other States in the country taking Telangana as a model. Director of TSSOCA, K. Keshavulu, offered to cooperate with all the States in introducing the system.
Mr. Srivatsava stated that although the MoA had sanctioned funds for the introduction of online seed certification to all the States, no State except Telangana has introduced it completely.
Later, at a meeting with the officials of Seed Development Corporations and Seed Certification Authorities of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, Mr. Srivatsava said the MoA had already decided to introduce Bar and QR coding on cotton seed packets for traceability in all the States, including Telangana, from the next kharif. The Bar and QR coding would have the details of seed producer and seed testing, he said.
Principal Secretary (Agriculture) C. Parthasarathi and the Director of TSSOCA, K. Keshavulu, explained how Telangana had overcome problems in implementing the online seed certification system from the 2016 kharif and how it helped in preventing spurious seed in groundnut, Bengal gram and soyabean to a large extent.
Managing Director of Andhra Pradesh State Seed Development Corporation S. Balakrishna, Director of National Informatics Centre Rajesh Srivatsava, nodal officer of TSSOCA G. Sudarshan and others also attended the meeting.