In an attempt to check the sale of herbicide tolerant (HT) cotton seed, which is being sold illegally by fictitious seed companies, the Agriculture Department has deployed task force teams, which also comprise police officers.
An awareness meeting was conducted for the task force teams here on Tuesday by the officials of the Agriculture and Police Departments in association with the Telangana State Seed and Organic Certification Authority (TSSOCA).
Principal Secretary (Agriculture) C. Parthasarathi, Inspector General of Police Y. Nagi Reddy, Commissioner of Agriculture Rahul Bojja, Commissioner of Horticulture L. Venkatrami Reddy and Director of TSSOCA K. Keshavulu addressed the meeting.
Seed Act
The officials explained to the task force teams the seed Act, the seed sample testing system, types of seed tags and others. They also gave them some important tips on how to identify spurious and illegal seed being sold in the State and what action to be initiated.
Surprise inspection
The task force team members were also told to visit all the districts in the State and conduct surprise inspection of the seed processing units and seed storage points to prevent the menace of spurious and illegal seed as much as possible.
Further, the officials also called upon farmers to purchase only genuine seed along with a proper receipt from the sellers.
Additional Director of Agriculture Vijay Kumar and several other officials from the Agriculture and Horticulture Departments also participated in the meeting.