Seed growers likely to get insurance cover

Seed growers likely to get insurance cover
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Seed growers likely to get insurance cover. If things fall in place, seed farmers in the State will soon have happy tidings.

Agriculture Minister Pocharam Srinivas Reddy kick-starts three-day National Seed Congress. He assures all help to the seed farmers in the State

Hyderabad: If things fall in place, seed farmers in the State will soon have happy tidings. According to Agriculture Minister Pocharam Srinivas Reddy, the Telangana government would examine the demand of extending insurance cover to seed growing farmers in the State. Efforts would be made to introduce PG (Diploma) course in Seed Science and Technology in Agriculture University for the benefit of stakeholders in seed industry, he said.

Agriculture Minister Pocharam Srinivas Reddy addressing the 8th National Seeds Congress at HICC in Hyderabad on Tuesday The Minister was addressing the three-day National Seed Congress that kick-started at HICC (Hyderabad International Convention Centre), Madhapur, on Tuesday, in which about six hundred delegates including scientists, experts, government officials, students and seed industry representatives from different parts of the country are taking part.

On the occasion, Pocharam stated that insurance to seed growers was a long pending and justified demand. A senior official from the department explained that thousands of farmers, especially in Nizamabad and Adilabad districts, who undertook soya bean seed production got a big jolt due to the seed failure. In this backdrop, the demand for extending insurance to seed growers has come to the fore once again.

The Agriculture Minister called upon the National Seed Congress to make suitable recommendations to benefit the farming community that pinned high hopes on this conference. He even made a mention of rise of farmer suicides in the country and the need to take effective steps to put an end to it.

He said Chief Minister K Chandrashekar had assured that the government would transform Telangana into the ‘seed bowl’ of the nation in the near future. “We want to go a step further and ensure that Telangana becomes the seed bowl of the entire world,” he said.

Principal Secretary (Agriculture) C Parthasarathi emphasized on the need for a strong seed industry which would invariably strengthen the agriculture sector. He pointed out that Indian seed industry, valued at Rs 16,000 crore, was growing at a remarkable rate of 15 percent while the global growth rate was just three percent.

He stressed on public and private sector to work together in PPP mode for the benefit of the industry and farmers. Meanwhile, A K Srivastava, Special Secretary, Agriculture Department, Government of India, called upon stakeholders to ensure researches and studies done in laboratories were carried forward to agricultural lands to benefit the farmers.

Renowned scientist Kent J Bradford from University of California stated that California, Hyderabad and a few other places in Netherlands offered congenial climate which was why they were most preferred locations for seed production on a big scale.

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