MNT Seed Testing Lab gets ISTA accreditation

Staff Reporter  :
Lalteer’s venture MNT Seed Testing Laboratory gets accreditation from the globally recognised International Seed Testing Association (ISTA).
It is the first lab of the country to get ISTA accreditation.
This accreditation would now help Later to boost export of quality seeds apart from providing developed sees to the local farmers, said Abdul Awal Mintoo, Chairman of Lal Teer, said.
He made the comment at a press conference, held at Lal Teer Seed R&D Farm at Gazipur, organised by Lal Teer to make the achievement public.
He said the company became member of ISTA in 2015 and after eight years of hard work of the MNT Lab research team, finally got the accreditation.
Mintoo said his company is now supplying 12,000 tonnes of seed annually of which vegetable comprises 90 per cent.
He said taking in account the quality like taste, size, weight, colour, production and percentage of water, his company develops seed.
He also informed that only 130 Labs in 83 countries so far got the ISTA certification.
“We have got the accreditation to give both the Blue and Orange certification”, he said.
Managing director of Lal Teer Mahbub Anam, said the company exports seeds worth US $ 1.2 million last year.
He said the export would increase further with getting this ISTA accreditation.
Lal Teer general manager and R&D encharge Dr Abdur Rashid, said the company so far developed 135 crop varieties of which 87 are hybrids. We have collected 130,000 germplasms from the country which is being preserved at our germplasm bank.
Those germplasms are being used in development of newer varieties.
A new onion variety has been given while two hybrid rice varieties are going to be released, he said.
Mintoo, however, further said that expanding onion hybrid seed could help the country raise its production to avoid imports.