New Delhi: The Centre has alerted state governments as well as the seed industry and research bodies to be vigilant about “suspicious/unsolicited seed parcels” from unknown sources entering into India which can be a threat to the country’s biodiversity.
A directive in this regard has been issued, the agriculture ministry said, as in the last few months thousands of suspicious seed shipments have been reported across the world.
The threat of “unsolicited/suspicious seed parcels with mislabelled packages from unknown sources” was reported in many countries like the US, Canada, the UK, New Zealand, Japan and some European nations, it said.
The ministry also mentioned that “the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) termed it as ‘brushing scam’ and ‘agriculture smuggling.’” PTI
