The Agriculture Department has asked its field offices and department farms/ nurseries to keep an eye out for suspicious seed parcels originating from unknown sources.
The directive comes in the wake of a nationwide alert issued by the Union Ministry of Agriculture on August 6.
The Ministry wanted States and agriculture-related agencies to be on guard against unsolicited seed parcels as they could have serious implications for the country’s biodiversity. According to it, several countries, including the U.S., Canada, U.K., New Zealand, Japan and some European nations, had reported the existence of such parcels.
“Since the last few months, thousands of such suspicious seed shipments have been reported across the world,” the Union Ministry said in an August 6 letter to State governments, State agricultural universities, seed associations and certification agencies, crop-based research institutes, and seed corporations.
The US Department of Agriculture has described it as a ‘brushing scam’ and ‘agricultural smuggling’ and reported that the unsolicited seed parcels may contain seeds of invasive species, the Union Ministry said.
It could even be an attempt to introduce pathogens that could pose a threat to the environment, agricultural ecosystems and national security, the Ministry warned.
Agriculture Minister V.S. Sunil Kumar’s office said the warning had been circulated among Krishi Bhavans, department farms, and nurseries across the State.
