Be vigilant, Union Ministry of Agriculture asks all States

The Deputy Commissioner of the Union Ministry, Dr. Dilip Srivastava said in his missive to the State agriculture departments that "it has come to notice of the Ministry that threat of unsolicited/suspicious seed parcels with mislabel packages from unknown sources was reported in many countries. Thousands of such suspicious seeds shipments have been reported across the world. The US Department of Agriculture termed it as 'brushing scam' and 'Agricultural Smuggling' and also reported that the unsolicited seed parcels may contain seeds of an alien invasive species or an attempt to introduce pathogens or disease that may cause serious threat to environment, agriculture ecosystem and national security.

"Unsolicited parcels can be a threat to biodiversity of our country; therefore, all State departments of agriculture, agricultural universities, seed corporations etc are directed to be vigilant about the suspicious seed parcels."

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