Expert inputs from Honorable Minister of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare Sri. Narendra Singh Tomar on conclusion of Indian Seed Congress 2023

The prestigious Indian Seed Congress, an annual seed event which is of great prominence in the industry was successfully conducted on 3rd & 4th March 2023 @ JW Marriott, New Delhi. The event consisted of 8 technical sessions with experts in the industry from all over the world & 30 stalls open to delegates for an experience throughout the 2 days. Honourable Minister of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare Sri. Narendra Singh Tomar elevated the excellence of the space by his presence & exclusive speech which inspired the delegates in the hall.
“It is good to see the annual tradition of Indian Seed Congress commence again after a gap due to covid. On this lively occasion & on behalf of the Government, I would take the opportunity to extend my warm greetings to everyone present in this hall. As we all know, the progress of seed, is the progress of universe. It is astonishing how the progress of seed is directly or indirectly very essential in the progress of every sector, every industry. The journey of seed is acknowledgeable, right from the field, to the farmer, back to the mankind, every entity involved in this journey plays an extremely crucial role. However, in the recent developments, the commercialization of seed has gone upto such an extent, that it’s impact on India & its people is going unnoticed. Its time we wake up to realize & do the needful in that aspect. Under the leadership of Sri.Narendra Modi ji, we have an access to get the essential aid needed to move further. History is an evidence to mark the noteworthy progress the education, textile, electronics etc industries have made with government’s support. The government believes there is potential in Seed Research & Development to be the game changer for the seed industry & this too, shall be concluded very soon & you must witness it through the upcoming initiatives & policies. That being said, it is a fact that this journey cannot be successfully accomplished by only government’s role. The government & private industry, at each level, below, mid & high will have to walk hand in hand, at every step, at all times, to make this a success. I would like to take a moment to acknowledge ICAR, who has been not only working to deliver 50 different hybrids but are also consistently putting their best resources together to fight the current, ongoing challenges of seed science. Along with ICAR, I also want to appreciate everyone present here, playing a significant role in making our industry better, it is by your knowledge & efforts that today we are able to meet the nation’s demand for seed & having known this is still a journey that we are yet to accomplish, there will be hurdles, real hurdles & I would need you to believe that the government is doing what it takes to solve these hurdles. It is also true that seed bill is under serious consideration & it will take some more time to conclude the same.
Seed Traceability System is going to be one of the solutions which will come live in a month or so. There are many rules & regulations brought into effect by many governments but yet remained ineffective due to negligence in implementation. I take pride in saying that Modiji’s government is very seriously taking actions in legal aspects of seed industry. There are 1500 rules brought in for discussion to the Lok Sabha & what’s revolutionary about these discussions is that we are breaking the already deep rooted context we have with respect to rules. Even before the game begins, we suspect that industry may do something wrong & we be prepared for how to deal with the wrong doings…hence the rules. But no! Now we are going to depict trust. A 2 way trust. The industry trusts the government & the government trusts the industry. The real goal is to strengthen this trust with time.
Its time we all acknowledge the transformation we have brought in India, Earlier, on most platforms, India would be the country asking for assistance. However, the citizens have driven the country to be so opportunistic that now we have a big part of the world, rely on India for it development. As much as this is a fact of pride, even more it is of responsibility. Its my request we all realize the kind of responsibility we hold not only in India but also the world to deliver what needs to be delivered.”
Source:Gubbanews