International Seed Conference and Expert Consultation,Kathmandu,Nepal
International Seed Conference and Expert Consultation was held at Kathmandu, Nepal on September 3rd and 4th, 2019.
The Government of Nepal developed a vision document to make Nepal self-sufficient and an exporter of seed by 2023, In that connection they wanted to gather expertise from all over the world and learn from their experiences. The conference was organised in collaboration with CIMMYT, USAID, IRRI, NARC and Ministry of Agriculture, Government of Nepal. The participants included Private seed sector of Nepal, Officials from the Ministry of Agriculture (Nepal), Scientists from Nepal Agriculture Research Centre (NARC), USAID, IRRI, Industry experts, Senior Government officials and Private sector from South Asia.
The Conference was inaugurated by Agri & livestock Development Minister, Nepal Mr. Chakar Pani Khanal. Participants from SeedWorks were Venkatram Vasantavada, MD & CEO, Satish Kumar, GM( Production)-Pearl Millet, Mustard and Hybrid Rice and Rupesh Kumar, GM(Sales) for East Zone.
Venkat was on a Panel Discussion “Fostering growth of seed business in developing countries “ along with Panellists from Zimbabwe, Malawi and Nepal. Venkat urged the Governments to create an enabling environment for the Private Industry to flourish while encouraging Public Private Partnerships and regulation to ensure that farmers get quality seed and Agronomy advise to improve their productivity and incomes. He also extended all support and partnership with Private sector Industry and Government of Nepal to help build their seed systems.
Satish made a detailed presentation around the nuances of Hybrid Rice Seed production, best practices to ensure quality seed and leveraging digitization process to bring in speed, real time decision making and efficiency. He promised all support on behalf of SeedWorks in training the Nepalese Entrepreneurs on hybrid rice seed production and also unveiled plans of doing SPR of SeedWorks Hybrids in Nepal.
Rupesh Kumar presented journey of SeedWorks in Nepal from 2007 working closely with the small and marginal farmers, The participants were happy to note that SeedWorks popular hybrid US312 is used by 1Lakh farmers and counting. Honourable Agriculture Minister of Nepal Mr. Chakar Pani Khanal visited SeedWorks stall and appreciated the performance of our popular Hybrid Rice US 312 in Nepal and agreed that he has seen the hybrid performance in farmers field first hand several times.
