The Sanjay Agarwal, Secretary (Agriculture) Govt of India during the valedictory session of Indian Seed Congress 2019 held at Novotel Hyderabad awarded the TSSOCA in the presence of C Partha Sarathi , IAS, APC and Prl. Secretary to Govt. (A & C) and other dignitaries on March 12, 2019
Telangana State Seed and Organic Certification Authority (TSSOCA) was established in July 2014 after bifurcation from Andhra Pradesh State Seed Certification Agency, with a mandate to serve the purpose of Seed Certification in the State of Telangana, as the State is recognized as Seed bowl of India and bestowed with congenial agro climate conditions, skilled human resources, infrastructure and better logistic facilities for quality seed production and storage, and catering more than 60% of the Country’s seed requirement besides its own requirement.
In this context, the TSSOCA has emerged as a model seed certification authority in the Country within short span of time with the several trans-formative changes in the field of seed certification besides certification of 20 to 22 lakh quintals of seed annually, like strengthening of infrastructure, recruitment of technical staff, introduction of complete online seed certification system to ensure transparency, accountability and speedy services to seed farmers and encourage genuine quality seed production. First of its kind in the country, TSSOCA has organised a national conference of state seed certification agencies to discuss various issues related to seed certification and submitted several recommendations to the Government of India.
Further, though the India became member of the OECD Seed Schemes in 2008, much progress could not be achieved till 2016. TSSOCA as a Leading Designated Authority for implementation of OECD seed certification in the Southern part of country has made commendable achievements like convened several national and international workshops and practical training programmes on International (OECD) Seed Certification. Initiated the registration of seed plots and for the first time in the country facilitated the seed exports to different countries of South Asia, Middle East and Africa under International (OECD) seed certification.
In addition, TSSOCA is closely associated with international seed organisations like ISTA, OECD, ISF, ESA etc and is one of regional partner in the Indo-German Cooperation Project on Seed Sector Development. In line with this, TSSOCA has also paved the way for establishing an international seed testing laboratory with world class state-of-art facilities at Hyderabad, which is first of its kind in the country under public sector. Creating such a landmark achievement in the Indian seed industry, TSSOCA also moved a step towards strengthening of organic farming in the State by including organic seed certification as its one more
