Workshop on Seed Production, Quality control & Marketing at HICC Novotel, Hyderabad
Background of the Workshop:
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger.
The main goal is to achieve food security for all and make sure that people have regular access to enough high-quality food to lead active healthy lives. With over 194 member states, FAO works in over 130 countries worldwide. FAO plays a crucial role in agricultural and rural development through agricultural innovations.
As many developing countries are still unable to harness the full potential of agricultural innovation, collective actions are required to remove barriers and address the constraints (technological, social, organizational, policy, etc.) that improves the capacity of farmers, and of other stakeholders in agriculture and food systems, to innovate.
FAO promotes the exchange of knowledge, information and practices, to review enabling policies and platforms, and to help the development of potential partnerships and action plans.
FAO works to develop an enabling environment and to enhance national agriculture research institutions and rural extension services by providing policy advice and technical assistance to member countries, by promoting studies, policy dialogue, networks and partnerships at all levels, and by supporting capacity development for rural knowledge institutions.
In this connection, FAO organised an International Symposium on Agricultural Innovation for Family Farmers in Rome, Italy from 21-23 November 2018. Wherein, Mr C. Partha Sarathi, IAS, APC & Principal Secretary, Government of Telangana was invited to present on Innovative Agriculture Investment Support and Farmers Group Life Insurance Schemes (Rythu Bandhu and Rythu Bima) that were successfully implemented in the Telangana State for the welfare of farmers.
Accordingly, Mr C. Partha Sarathi, IAS, APC & Principal Secretary, Government of Telangana along with Dr K. Keshavulu, Director and Managing Director, Telangana State Seed & Organic Certification Authority and Telangana State Seeds Development Corporation proceeded to Rome to participate in the FAO international symposium.
In the symposium, Mr C. Partha Sarathi, and Dr K. Keshavulu, interacted with higher officials of FAO namely Mr. Daniel Gustafson, DDG (Programmes) and Mr. Bukar Tijani, ADG (Agriculture and Consumer Protection Department), and also had few side meetings with FAO Seed Division officials namely, Dr. Chikelu Mba, Team leader, Seed and Plant Genetic Resources, Mr. Wilson Hugo, Leader, Seed Sector Development and Dr. Shawan Mecgure, Leader, Seed Security Department.
During the meeting, Mr C. Partha Sarathi and Dr K. Keshavulu made a detailed and comprehensive presentation on Telangana State Seed Sector and its development through several initiatives and also invited them to take part in ISTA Congress-2019.
The detailed discussions were held on various issues of seed sector development in Telangana State, wherein FAO officials appreciated the initiatives taken by the Government of Telangana to ensure quality seed access to the farming community across the Telangana and India as well as to other countries.
The FAO officials appreciated the efforts of Government in establishing better infrastructure, skilled human resource and logistics in the State to cater the needs of modern seed industry with all the advanced state-of-art facilities for seed production, processing, certification, testing, training and research on the seed.
During the interaction, FAO officials opined that Telangana State can become a major seed supplier by taking lead in regional harmonization among the SAARC countries and South-South Cooperation with African countries. FAO will support the Telangana state in expanding its seed market to SAARC and African countries.
They also mentioned that one of the key mandates of FAO is to make quality seed access to farmers especially in developing countries and work with governments to achieve this objective.
They suggested that Government of Telangana should not restrict to developing effective seed system only in the State, but need to help all other countries of FAO in building an effective system for seed production, quality control and business development.
In this context, during the interaction, it was proposed to organise a workshop in collaboration with FAO with an objective to improve the capabilities of small and medium seed enterprises of developing countries (especially African countries) in terms of seed production, quality control and marketing strategies and also to provide an opportunity for business interaction between Indian (both public and private) and African Seed Industry to promote the cross-border seed trade by addressing the various related issues. This workshop would help to boost the seed exports from India in general and Telangana state in particular.
Workshop organisers:
Department of Agriculture and Cooperation Department, Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperation, Government of Telangana, Hyderabad in collaboration with United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Rome, Italy from June 24 – 25, 2019 at HICC-Novotel, Hyderabad.
Overview of the Workshop:
The success of agriculture in terms of productivity and income highly depends on access to good quality seed, which is fundamental and most vital in crop production systems. The quality seed being a carrier of technology is inevitable to meet the challenges of food and nutritional security for the ever-growing population. Majority of the countries across the world have made significant investments for strengthening of seed production and distribution systems to ensure farmers access to quality seeds of improved varieties.
Yet many farmers in developing countries are still facing difficulties in accessing the quality seeds of improved varieties, this is mainly attributed to lack of efficient seed production and quality assurance systems, lack of qualified and trained seed professionals, inefficient seed distribution/supply system, inadequate supply or combination of all these factors. As a result, most of the farmers especially in developing countries are left without access to quality seeds of new and improved varieties.
In this context, an efficient seed system to produce sufficient quantities of quality seed of appropriate varieties, and to make available them at the right time inaccessible locations at affordable prices to the farming community in need of the hour. This may require changes in the policies and regulations or introduction of new methodologies and techniques. To achieve this, technical, economic and managerial issues need to be considered and addressed in a comprehensive way.
The pre-congress workshop on “Seed Production, Quality Control & Marketing” in connection with 32nd ISTA Congress-2019 under South-South Cooperation of FAO is designed to improve the capabilities of seed professionals of developing countries especially African countries in terms of seed production, quality control and marketing and also to foster the seed trade between India especially Telangana State and African countries by addressing the various issues.
The workshop covers a wide range of topics viz., global and Indian seed industry, principles of quality seed production, seed certification, seed quality management in large scale seed multiplication systems, phytosanitary, plant quarantine regulations, marketing and distribution, and seed business management. The workshop includes a series of lectures by Indian and international seed experts and industry interactions. Each participant will have the opportunity to share and present the current system of seed production & marketing and their experiences in their own country.
Purpose of the Workshop:
The workshop on “Seed Production, Quality Control & Marketing” is designed to provide in-depth knowledge on seed quality seed production, seed certification, seed quality management and seed marketing strategies by involving international seed experts. The main objectives of the workshop are;
- To encourage the Indian public sector seed corporations to export seeds to other countries
- To promote the seed exports from Telangana State to African and Southeast Asian countries
- To connect the seed associations/industries of Southeast Asian and African regions with special focus on Telangana Seed Industry
- To foster the growth of Telangana Seed Industry by promoting the large-scale investment by multinational seed companies and generation of employment opportunities
- To boost the seed production in Telangana State thereby improving the farmer's income
- To have interaction among the seed associations/industries for strengthening seed systems to meet the challenges of food security
Key Components:
•Seed Industry (Both public and private)
•Principles of quality seed production
•Seed Quality Assurance Systems (Seed Certification and Testing)
•Seed Marketing &Trade
•Interaction among the seed associations/industries/public seed corporations
Participants:
A total of 100 participants including seed policy makers, government officials, scientists, seed analysts, technologists, small and medium seed enterprises (SMEs)
- 50 participants from 34 countries of Southeast Asia and Africa
- 50 participants from Indian Seed Industry (Both public and private)
