Tummala Reviews Progress on Telangana Seed Act Draft
Tummala said there were many shortcomings in the implementation of the Seed Act, 1966, and the Seed Control Order, 1983, which seed companies were misusing.
Hyderabad: Agriculture minister Tummala Nageswara Rao on Sunday conducted a meeting with the members of the committee that is drafting the Telangana Seed Act and inquired about the modalities that it had proposed. He said that the agriculture and the horticulture sectors were suffering severe losses due to the entry of spurious seeds.
He said there were many shortcomings in the implementation of the Seed Act, 1966, and the Seed Control Order, 1983, which seed companies were misusing. The drafting committee explained the shortcomings the current legislation, and how farmers are losing money. The members said the Seeds Act, 1966, offered no legal control over seed production, registration of seed varieties and hybrids is not mandatory, and lack of power to control prices and fix prices.
The committee also stated that inability to quickly resolve crop losses due to the supply of substandard seeds in the crop grown by farmers and to obtain compensation from the company that supplied them. inability to provide adequate compensation to the seed farmers if the seed crops are sown in a manner other than as agreed in the seed production agreement in special circumstances.
