A high-level agriculture department delegation with 5 delegates from Telangana led by Agriculture Minister S. Niranjan Reddy visited Germany and The Netherlands from October 29 – November 5, 2019. The study visit programme was organized by the project “Indo-German Cooperation on Seed Sector Development”.

The programme started with the visit of the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL), the Indian Embassy in Berlin and the ecological village of Brodowin (practicing biodynamic farming) near Berlin. Afterwards the delegation met representatives of the German Plant Breeders’ Association (BDP) in Bonn and visited BAYER Crop Science Division in Monheim, BASF Vegetable Seed Company Nunhems BV in Nunhem and a seed growing farm in Germany.

The programme continued in The Netherlands with the visit of the Seed Valley in the northwest of the Netherlands to study the technologies being adopted there in the production and processing of quality seed. Furthermore, the Dutch Inspection Service for Horticulture Naktuinbouw in Roelofarendsveen, the flower auction in Aalsmeer and further meetings took place.

The Indian Council of Food & Agriculture (IFCA) organized an international meeting of various seed stakeholders from September 18-21, 2019 in Bangalore to discuss and develop a strategic plan for seed sector development. The congress was focused on the growth parameters for the sector in Asia and Africa.

The German seed sector expert Dr. Elmar Weissmann participated with a contribution in the technical session 4: “Harmonizing a Intellectual Property Rights Regulatory Regime in Seed Industry” on behalf of the Indo-German cooperation project on seed sector development.

The World Seed Congress in Bangalore was organized by IFCA, International Seed Federation (ISF) and was supported by the Federation of Seed Industry of India (FSII) and National Seed Association of India (NSAI) and several co-sponsors.

In conjunction with the 32nd Congress 2019 of the International Seed Testing Association (ISTA) an International Seed Exhibition was organized from June 26-28, 2019 in Hyderabad, India. More than 75 public and private seed related organizations and firms from across the world presented their state-of-the-art facilities and solutions for better seed production, seed processing, seed testing, developments in biotechnology and other advanced technologies for high quality seed production.

The project “Indo-German Cooperation on Seed Sector Development” participated at the International Seed Exhibition with a stall and provided information about the activities and achievements of the project. The project is part of the bilateral cooperation program of the German Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) and is implemented by the consortium of ADT Project Consulting GmbH (ADT) and German Plant Breeders’ Association (BDP). The project stall at the exhibition was frequently visited during the three-days exhibition.

In parallel to the International Seed Exhibition, the ISTA Seed Symposium under the theme “Seed technology and quality in a changing world” took place at the same location, the International Convention Centre in Hyderabad. Participants of the symposium have been above all seed analysts, seed laboratory experts, technologists, researchers and managers from universities or research institutes, policy makers and members of the seed industry from more than 60 countries of the world.

The bilateral project participated particularly at the poster session of the ISTA Seed Symposium. Two posters had been prepared and presented by the project team on:

• Indo-German Cooperation on Seed Sector Development;
• Opportunities and Challenges to Improve Agriculture & Seed Sector Value Chain Governance in Telangana Region, India.

The whole ISTA Congress in Hyderabad and all connected side events have been very well organized. More than 500 participants from across the world attended the ISTA Seed Symposium.