Seed and Crop Services in SGS India

India is one of the major agriculture based country in the world. Globally, it stands fourth in GM crop cultivation. Around 500 registered seed companies are in India and a huge amount of different crops seeds are being produced every year for domestic and export purpose. Production, processing and marketing of good quality seeds are the primary importance for any seed companies. In this context, SGS has established a state of start seed testing laboratory in 2008 at Hyderabad the seed capital of India to serve the seed industry with various analytical services. The response from seed companies is encouraging in the first year itself. Major players are currently associated with us for various seed and crop services. Currently, seed lab Hyderabad offers following testing services.

• Germination test – where the seed is grown on different media under controlled conditions for stipulated period and asses the germination percentage.
• Physical purity test – Working sample sorted into Pure Seed, inert matter, weed seed and other crop Seeds and the proportions are expressed as percentages by weight and OCS by number basis.
• Seed moisture test – Loss of weight against actual weight that occurs during drying in Hot air oven is calculated as the percentage by weight moisture content.
• Vigor test – Accelerated aging, cold test and Cool Germination is more sensitive index of seed quality than the standard germination test and is to test the capacity of the seed how it will perform under stressed conditions in the filed and for storage estimation.
• Tetrazolium test – a rapid chemical test to determine the viability of seeds.

Apart from this, certain other services like seed sampling, seed storage studies are also offered to the seed industry. Currently, we serve 36 Indian seed companies and 1 each from Sri Lanka and Thailand. Till date 14 field crop and 18 vegetable crop seeds are tested for various parameters

Seed Testing Laboratory at Hyderabad

Over the period it is observed that seed company clients are interested in certain rapid and advanced DNA tests. In response to the need of seed customers, our DNA lab facility situated at Ahmedabad developed certain unique methods for seed testing besides the existing DNA services to agri/food exporters and traders since 2005. The laboratory also provides analytical services on regulatory field trials of GM events. Currently, SGS Biotechnology laboratory offers following testing services to transgenic and non transgenic seed producing customers.

• GMO test – P35S & TNOS based and qualitative and quantitative tests to determine the genetically modified seeds/plants
• GMO Event test – the test is enabled to identify the specific GM events
• GMO method validation – this test part of regulatory field trial and is required by the transgenic seed producing companies who seek regulatory permit to commercialize a GM event.
• Hybrid seed genetic purity test – DNA fingerprint technology based method to determine the hybridity of seeds and admixture of noxious seeds.
• Seed pathogen test – a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) based test to screen the presence of pathogens like bacteria, fungus, nematodes in seed/plant samples.
• Virus test – ELISA based virus test for seed potato and tissue culture plants.

Biotechnology Laboratory at Ahmedabad

As per the survey and feed back from various customers, it is observed that a scientific validation studies are required for key test parameters where still conventional methods are followed. As a result, recently we have designed validation study of hybrid seed genetic purity test by DNA finger print technology against the conventional grow out-test (GOT). Assessment of hybrid seed genetic purity is one of the most important quality control components in hybrid seed production. Traditionally, it has been the practice to carry out a GOT, based on morphological traits, for assessment of genetic purity of seeds. GOT is time consuming (takes one full growing season for completion), space demanding and often does not allow the unequivocal identification of genotypes. To overcome this constraint, SGS has conducted a field based validation trial in collaboration with certain seed companies. All major crops like rice, sunflower, chilly, tomato hybrid seeds were supplied by the seed companies were subjected field GOT trials. The submitted seed lots are sampled uniformly and divide into two samples. One part is used for conducting GOT trials in field and the other part is subjected to DNA test in the lab. The results of the two tests are compared and interpreted to establish the reliability and accuracy of DNA test.

GOT Field Trials at Hyderabad

In the one year span we have established a sound analytical facility of seed services. Seed lab Hyderabad is pursuing to get ISO 17025:2005 accreditation and eventually ISTA accreditation. Seed lab has planned to expand its service to tissue culture plant certification in future. The biotech laboratory is recently recognized by department of Biotechnology (DBT), Govt. of India who regulates the GMO field trials. This recognition will speed up our future plan on conducting regulated GM field trials and other GMO related services. Apart from this, we are mainly focused on other field related activities such as GLP/GEP field trials for agrochemical evaluation, IRM audits, crop survey/audits and contract research on molecular biology for advanced crop breeding.

Some More Pictures

For more details on Seed and Crop Services in India please contact:

Dr. Sudhir K Gupta
Director - Agriculture and Food Service

SGS India Private Limited
SGS House, 4 B A S Marg,
Vikhroli (West)
Mumbai 400 083
Maharashtra, India
t: +91 22 2579 8421 to 29
m: +91 98 6701 9110
f: +91 22 2577 5546
Email