Quality seed and planting material would hold the key to achieving “zero hunger”, the second of the 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) set by the United Nations to be achieved by 2030, said several speakers at a workshop on “seed production, quality control and marketing” organised here on Monday.
The two-day event is being organised as a pre-cursor to the 32nd International Seed Testing Association (ISTA) Congress-2019 to be held here from June 26 to July 3, and is attended by officials and other agencies from 33 African countries as also from the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the UN.
Farmers’ welfare
Speaker of the Telangana Legislative Assembly Pocharam Srinivas Reddy, who inaugurated the event, said the focus of the State government is to increase the income of farmers through various initiatives aimed at development of agriculture sector and welfare of the farming community. He noted that Rythu Bandhu, the investment support scheme (grant), and Rythu Bima, the group life insurance scheme for farmers under 60 years of age, were the most unique interventions to be attempted in any country.
Uninterrupted free power supply to agriculture pump-sets and spending ₹2,500 crore on farm mechanisation over the last five years were also the measures taken towards making farming sustainable and remunerative, Mr. Srinivas Reddy said.
Stating that highest quality of seed and maintenance of quality in production was important in achieving UN-SDG of food security, president of ISTA Craig McGill said the changing scenario of climate change and population growth was making it more imperative. Team leader of seed and plant genetics resource of FAO Chikelu Mba said FAO was giving huge importance to the SDG to conquer hunger by 2030 as about 820 million people across the globe are going to bed on empty stomach every day now and it was worrisome to many countries.
Mr. Mba suggested that the process to achieve the SDG must include access to quality seed and planting material for quality and quantity food production. He noted that less than 10% of farmers in Africa had access to quality seed and planting material.
Principal Secretary (Agriculture) C. Parthasarathi said the number of farmers using high-value seeds from the traditional varieties is on the rise and FAO mandate on common crops in Asia and Africa would be central to achieve the SDG of zero hunger. Former Agriculture Secretary S.K. Pattanayak said India would have to take lead in achieving the SDG on zero hunger.
Commissioner of Agriculture Rahul Bojja, President of Telangana Rashtra Rythu Samanvaya Samithi G. Sukhender Reddy, Chairman of Telangana State Seed Development Corporation K. Koteshwar Rao, Director of Telangana State Seed and Organic Certification Authority K. Keshavulu also spoke on the occasion.