Seed Testing Laboratory Scheme, Meghalaya

What is the Seed Testing Laboratory Scheme in Meghalaya?

The Seed Testing Laboratory Scheme is a state plan scheme of the Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare Department, Government of Meghalaya. According to the department's Farmers Friendly Schemes booklet, the scheme's objective is "assisting seed testing services to farmers to ensure the viability and purity of seed to be sown", and its pattern of assistance is the popularising of seed testing services among farmers. The department's separate FAQ on agriculture schemes records the entitlement as free seed testing service and training for farmers.

The Seed Testing Laboratory Scheme answers a specific, expensive problem. A hill farmer who sows a bad lot loses not only the seed but the whole season on that plot, because in Meghalaya's single main kharif window there is rarely time to re-sow. Saved seed carried over a humid monsoon, seed bought loose from an unlabelled sack, or seed held from a previous year can lose germination without any visible sign. A germination test done a few weeks before sowing turns that invisible risk into a number.

What the laboratory does

• Germination and viability testing, the core service, telling you what percentage of the lot will actually come up.
• Physical purity analysis, how much of the sample is pure seed of the declared crop and variety, and how much is inert matter, weed seed or other crop seed.
• Rapid viability tests, the department's citizen charter lists Tetrazolium and Phenol Rapid Tests among its technical services. The tetrazolium test gives a viability result quickly, without waiting out a full germination period, and the phenol test is used to distinguish varieties.
• Training for farmers on seed selection, handling and storage, listed alongside the test itself in the entitlement.

The laboratory work sits with the department's research and training side. The citizen charter names the contact point as the Research Officer, District Local Research Station and Laboratory, located at East Khasi Hills, Shillong; West Jaintia Hills, Jowai; and West Garo Hills, Tura.

Who is eligible for free seed testing in Meghalaya?

You can use the scheme if:

• You are a bona fide farmer having cultivable land and engaged in agriculture. That is the exact criterion published in the department's FAQ on agriculture schemes.
• You are seeking a test on seed you intend to sow yourself; own saved seed, seed bought from a dealer, or seed received from a departmental farm.
• You approach an officer with jurisdiction over the area where you ordinarily reside, or the Research Officer of the laboratory directly.

You cannot apply, or are not eligible, if:

• You are not a cultivator. The scheme is for farmers, not for the general public.
• You are a seed company or licensed dealer seeking certification of a marketed lot. Seed certification and wholesale or retail seed dealership licensing are distinct services of the same department, with their own procedures, and are not covered by the free farmer test.
• You want the laboratory to test soil. Soil testing is a separate scheme with its own free service and Soil Health Card, handled by the Soil Testing Laboratory at Shillong, Tura or Jowai — do not send soil to the seed laboratory.
• You are outside Meghalaya, since the service is delivered through the state's own block, circle and district network.

No income limit, holding-size cap, age bar or category condition has been notified for this scheme.

What documents and material do I need to bring?

How to draw a sample properly. A seed test is only as good as the sample. Take small handfuls from several points and depths across every bag in the lot, mix them together, and submit from that mixture. A sample scooped from the top of one bag can pass while the rest of the lot fails, which is the single most common way a farmer gets a clean report and still loses a crop.

How to apply for seed testing in Meghalaya

1. Draw a representative sample from the lot you plan to sow, as described above, and put it in a clean cloth or paper bag with a slip naming the crop, the variety and your village.
2. Write a plain-paper application. The department's citizen charter allows applications in plain paper where a prescribed form is not available; prescribed forms can be downloaded from megagriculture.gov.in.
3. Submit the sample and application by either route. Route one is through the Agriculture Development Officer of your CD Block; there are 39, or of your Agriculture Circle, of which there are 16, who forwards it to the District Agriculture Officer. Route two, which the department's FAQ explicitly allows, is to hand it directly to the Research Officer of the Seed Testing Laboratory.
4. Note the acknowledgement or sample number given to you, and leave a mobile number.
5. Collect the report when the laboratory notifies you. The department states that all samples brought in are tested and reports are generated.
6. Act on the result before sowing. If germination is well below what the crop needs, either raise the seed rate to compensate or replace the lot, that decision is the entire point of testing early.

Office hours at the District Agriculture Officer, District Horticulture Officer, Research Officer and District Training Officer contact points are 10.00 AM to 5.00 PM in summer and 10.00 AM to 4.30 PM in winter, as published in the citizen charter.

How to follow up on a seed test report

Meghalaya has not published a turnaround-time commitment for the seed test, so follow up actively rather than waiting:

1. Contact the Research Officer at the laboratory where the sample was lodged, quoting your sample number.
2. If the sample went through the Block, ask the Agriculture Development Officer whether it has been forwarded and when.
3. Escalate to the District Agriculture Officer of your district if there is no movement.

For general crop and scheme queries a farmer can call the Kisan Call Centre on 1800-180-1551, toll free, from 6.00 AM to 10.00 PM daily including Sunday.

Why a seed testing request goes nowhere

• Sample too small or unrepresentative, so the laboratory cannot run a valid analysis.
• No crop, variety or source details, which leaves the report meaningless to the farmer receiving it.
• Sample submitted too close to sowing, so the report arrives after the window has passed and cannot change any decision.
• Sent to the wrong laboratory; soil samples posted to the seed laboratory, or seed sent to a soil testing centre.
• Applicant is not a cultivator, which puts the request outside the scheme's eligibility.
• No contact number left, so the laboratory cannot tell you the report is ready.

Grievance route for the Seed Testing Laboratory Scheme

The Department of Agriculture's citizen charter gives farmers three grievance options. A grievance can be given in writing to the concerned District Agricultural Officer during office hours. It can be given directly to the Director of Agriculture at the headquarters, Cleve Colony, Government Fruit Garden, Shillong-793 003, on (0364) 2222460, email agri-meg@nic.in. Or it can be filed online on the state government's grievance portal at mii.nic.in.

The Agriculture Information Officer at the same Shillong address, on (0364) 2229127, is the published contact for information on schemes, forms and package-of-practices material. No fee is payable at any stage of this scheme, and a farmer asked to pay for a seed test should report it through the grievance route above.