TS Govt issues guidelines to turn Telangana into ‘Seed Bowl’

Hyderabad, Feb 18 (INN): The Telangana Government on Wednesday has approved the new scheme ‘Strengthen of seed chain and development of infrastructure’ and issued guidelines to turn Telangana into ‘Seed Bowl of India’.

The Commissioner and Director of Agriculture Department had earlier prepared a Seed Production Plan for a period of five years i.e., from 2014-15 to 2018-19 to achieve 100 per cent Seed Replacement rate in Telangana State and the government had allocated Rs 50 crore under Budget Estimates 2014-15 for the same. The new scheme aimed at implementation of seed production plan, promotion and multiplication of new varieties, production of Soybean and other crop seeds in the State to develop the Telangana State as Seed Bowl. Accordingly, he had submitted the project proposals along with guidelines and requested to accord approval for the same.

Subsequently, the government gave approval to the new schemes and also issued the guidelines.

As per the new guidelines, the Agencies have been asked to submit detailed proposals to the Department for scrutiny and to take approval from the concerned authority. As per the approval, the work orders to be given to implement the proposed work. The progress of the work will be reviewed every month at Directorate level and Government level.

The State Government will give top priority for production of Soyabean seed and development of specialized processing units and storage godowns in the State. All the Research Institutions and Seed Producing Agencies have been asked to submit monthly progress report to office of the Director of Agriculture. The Research Institutions and Seed Producing Agencies have also been asked to plan for production of Green manure seed such as Dhaincha, Sunhemp and Pillipesera within the State.