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11 seed testing labs to be set up

ISLAMABAD: The Government will set up 11 new farm seed testing laboratories in the country to regulate private seed industry on modern lines, officials said.

The laboratories will cost a total of Rs 72 million according to the approved plan. The plan is a part of the Agriculture Sector Investment Project (ASIP) funded by the World Bank.

Sources said these modern labs will ensure quality of farm seeds on the one hand and monitor business practices in the private seed industry on the other.

Federal Seed Certificate and Registration Department (FSC&RD) of the Ministry of Agriculture will execute the plan within 60 months.

Official sources said the federal government would also upgrade the 15 existing farm seed testing laboratories under this project. The equipment at these laboratories has become obsolete and needs to be upgraded to make them more effective.

The main aim of the exercise was to ensourage production of quality seeds in potential agricultural areas of the country. Sources said that in order to increase crop yield, adequate arrangements to support a systematic seed production in potential agriculture areas was a prerequisite especially when private sector has also entered the seed business actively.

"Public and private sector are now competing each other in supply of quality seeds. This trend needs a modern mechanism in the form of testing labs to keep checks and balances on the seed producers and the sellers," sources said.

Sources said about 300 private companies were producing seed in addition to the public sector seed production facilities in the country. Many more are in the pipeline, sources said.

The proposed 11 new seed labs will be set up in Bahawalpur, Bahawalnagar, Vehari, Dera Ghazi Khan, Bhakkar, Faisalabad, Chakwal in Punjab; Mirpurkhas and Larkana in Sindh; and Usta Mohammad and Abbottabad in NWFP. The 15 existing seed labs located in various ecological zones of the country will also be equipped and upgraded. These zones are Islamabad, Lahore, Sahiwal, Sargodha, Multan, Khanewal, Rahim Yar Khan, Peshawar, Dera Ismail Khan and Mingora.

Earlier, sources said, seed certification and quality control facilities of federal government departments were strengthened under the seed industry project in 1976 and 1981 with the aim to meet the annual requirements of 103,000 tonnes of different seeds.ÑFortuna