The National Seed Congress (NSC 2024)
Seeds are essential for empowering farmers to tackle pressing agricultural challenges. Ensuring seed security through quality and affordable seeds is crucial for agricultural development and food security. However, the seed sector faces complexities, especially in reaching the last-mile farmers in developing countries. With climate change impacting agriculture, aligning seed systems with farmers' needs is vital. Government policies have fueled the demand for quality planting material, and innovations in seed production, farmer incomes, and community-led initiatives have bolstered the Indian seed industry.
The National Seed Congress 2024 (NSC 2024), co-organized by IRRI South Asia Regional Centre (ISARC) and the National Seed Research and Training Center (NSRTC) under the aegis of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Government of India, is a platform for stakeholders to discuss challenges and innovations in the seed sector. NSC 2024 aims to foster collaboration, share knowledge, and produce actionable outcomes for seed system growth.
Fostering Regional Cooperation, Partnership, and Knowledge Exchange in the Seed Sector
The objectives of the NSC 2024 are:
- Create a platform for different stakeholders from the seed sector to share and exchange innovations being curated around different domains of the seed systems in India.
- Reflecting on the system’s capacity and priorities to meet the emerging needs of the seed sector.
- Deliberate on the progress and growing new interest in public-private partnerships in seed business.
- Learn and disseminate the good practices for promoting community engagement for the scaling program for working around challenges.
- Formulate a roadmap for sustainable growth of the seed sector in India.
The themes of the technical sessions for NSC 2024 are:
