Track And Traceability Of Certified Seeds Introduced To Ensure Availability Of Quality Seeds: Economic Survey

Fahad Shabbir (@FahadShabbir) Published June 10, 2021 | 05:41 PM

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th Jun, 2021 ) :In order to ensure availability of certified seeds to enhance per-acre crop output, the Ministry of National food Security and Research (MNFSR) in collaboration with Federal Seed Certification and Registration Department (FSC&RD) had introduced track and traceability of certified seeds.

The Ministry of National Food Security and Research, FSC&RD in collaboration with provincial extension departments has started track and traceability of certified seed so that the impact of these interventions can be calculated at farm level.

According the Economic Survey of Pakistan, a unified format has been designed for major crops like wheat, cotton and paddy. A total of 434 companies working on wheat were assessed for seed traceability of 513,519 metric tons seed, of which data was traced for 361,408 metric tons including 87.4 percent.

The services of 110 companies with respect to wheat seed testing were deferred owing to failure in providing traceability data or huge traceability gaps.

The information regarding sale of cotton certified seed to dealers by the seed companies is being shared with provincial extension departments for traceability of certified seed at farmer level.

Meanwhile, the establishing a System of Consumer Traceability for Seed Authenticity MNFS&R with the help of National Telecommunication Corporation (NTC) is in the process of establishing a system of track and traceability of seed produced by seed companies, certified by FSC&RD and sold by seed dealers.

In this respect, a system of unique algorithmic labels will be introduced which farmers will be able to verify through SMS. Developing a Seed Information Management System for FSC&RD is also part of the interventions which will be a step forward in transforming manual data recording to digitize FSC&RD services.

This will not only provide access to real time data but will also improve the efficiency and transparency in activities pertaining to seed qualityregulation.