The Committee on Public Accounts (COPA) disclosed that there is no proper regulatory system to control the price of vegetable seeds in this country.
This was disclosed when the Committee met in Parliament on Tuesday (08) under the chairmanship of Member of Parliament Kabir Hashim. A discussion was held on the performance of the process of producing vegetable seeds locally and several parties including the officials from the Agriculture Ministry were present.
It was also discussed that although the ‘State Policy on Seed and Planting Material Industry’ was prepared in 1997, it was not published in the Gazette as at January 1, 2021. Furthermore, regarding the Seed Act No. 22 of 2003, there was a discussion at length and attention was drawn to the fact that the necessary amendments had not been made. Thus, it was disclosed that there are several institutions in the private sector that are allowed to import seeds and that this Act does not include a system to control the price of seeds imported by those institutions.
Thus, the members of the committee who were present pointed out that this is a very serious situation. The Members of Parliament pointed out that the domestic vegetable farmer is in a lot of trouble as a result and that this is a mafia. Therefore, they pointed out that a system should be prepared to control this situation and by that a system should be created to enable the domestic vegetable farmer to buy vegetable seeds at an affordable price.
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