May 10: Telangana Agriculture Minister Singireddy Niranjan Reddy has said that India is one of the emerging seed industries in the world.
Speaking at the 33rd International Seed Testing Association (ISTA) Congress being held at Hotel Cairo in Egypt, Reddy said that the farmers should receive quality seeds. He said strict regulations are required for all the countries to produce quality seeds.
Stating that quality seed production is required to achieve high agricultural production, the Minister said research and investments will be a waste in the agriculture sector until good quality seeds are available to the farmers.
Moving towards zero hunger by 2030, Reddy said ISTA was an International seed body that should take necessary steps to improve standards for seed sampling and testing methods. He said Telangana was ready to partner with the ISTA in producing quality seeds. The Minister said India was an agrarian economy and a wide range of crops are cultivated in India in different weather conditions.
Reddy said that India was one of the fastest growing countries in seed production and occupies 5th Rank with s growth rate of 12-15 per cent as compared to international growth rate of 5 per cent. He said, under the leadership of Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, top priority was given to the seed industry.
Telangana Agricultural production has been increased to 38.3 million metric tonnes in 2020-21 from 20.7 million metric tonnes in 2014-15, the Minister said several multi-national companies are located in the state. Country’s one-third of seeds were being produced by Telangana, an official release quoting Reddy said here on Tuesday.
