HYDERABAD: Office bearers of the Association of All Sindh Seeds (AASS) have urged the federal government not to decentralise seed component as provinces are already overburdened and can damage this important component of the agriculture sector.

Speaking at a press conference at local press club on Sunday, the association’s president Nadeem Shah, general secretary Nawaz Nizamani and others said that they, the growers from Sindh, also owned seed companies as after 18th Amendment the agriculture sector was decentralised, but the federal government still retained some components of agriculture like food security and seed.

They said that seed component was governed by the Federal Seed Certification and Registration Department (FSC&RD), but the federal government wanted to hand over this component to all the provinces.

They said the Sindh agriculture department was not able to control issues relating to sale of pesticides and fertiliser. The agriculture department did not have capacity to address those issues and the way its officials minted money in fertiliser and pesticide sale, it would be another source of illegitimate income for them, they added.

Nadeem Shah said the agriculture department was not able to control sale of spurious and substandard fertiliser and pesticides with the result that farmers kept suffering. No cases were filed in courts against suppliers of those farm inputs in the market, he added.

He said the provincial agriculture department’s officials did not have expertise and training to manage the seed sector. The FSC&RD also needed strengthening which must be done, but it was still capable of taking care of seed related problems confronting farmers and companies, he said.

He added the Sindh Seed Corporation (SSC) was a full-fledged provincial department of the Sindh, but it failed to meet expectations of the farmers.

He said that unapproved seeds reached markets in Sindh, which was to be controlled by the Sindh agriculture department by setting up check-posts to check arrival of such seeds.

He said the Punjab government checked such supplies in its areas. Some companies were banned in Rahimyar Khan which had been busy in producing spurious cotton and other crops’ seeds, he said.

He said it was provincial government’s domain to stop supply of unapproved seeds.

Nawaz Nizamani said the association’s platform was formed to raise voice for seed companies as well. He said the Sindh agriculture department’s performance was not up to the mark.

He said the prime minister should take notice of the issue and intervene because they feared that if it was devolved to the provinces, the seed sector would be completely destroyed.

Atif Nazir Kaimkhani, secretary of the Seed Association of Pakistan (SAP), said 70 companies would be rendered dysfunctional. He said research and development initiatives were not taken in Sindh.

He said the ‘enforcement’ component of seeds was being decentralised under new scheme of things, which would not benefit the agriculture sector.

Yousuf Rajpar said that it would not be viable to hand over the seed sector to the provincial government. The entire seed business would be affected in Sindh, he added.

He said the federal government should retain this component like food security. He said that companies busy in producing seed would face tremendous difficulties because such powers of certifying seeds were exercised by the federal government in the entire world.

Published in Dawn, December 21st, 2020