STAFF REPORTER
GUWAHATI: “The future of the agriculture sector depends on the quality of seeds. The State Agriculture Department ensures that good quality seeds are provided to farmers. However, there are some unscrupulous traders who supply inferior quality or spurious seeds to farmers due to which they suffer losses. The Agriculture department officials must take action against such unscrupulous traders under the Seed Act, 1966,” said State Agriculture Minister Atul Bora. He inaugurated the regional council for organic seed certification under PGS-India Program and launched the Seed Traceability Portal (SATHI) during a programme held at the Directorate of Horticulture & Food Processing, Assam on Tuesday.
Bora said that there has been an increase in the demand for organic farming the world over. But in Assam and the Northeast, due to lack of organic farming certification agencies, the organic farmers of the region face problems. He further said that with the recognition of the Assam Seed & Organic Certification Agency (ASOCA) as the regional council for organic farming certification, the problems of organic farmers will be solved to a large extent.
The SATHI (Seed Traceability, Authentication and Holistic Inventory) Portal is a centralized online system for seed traceability, authentication and inventory designed to deal with the challenges of seed production, quality seed identification and seed certification.
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