Visit of Secretary, MoA&FW and senior officials of MoA&FW at PC Cell, AINP on Pesticide Residues

25th January 2023, New Delhi

Shri Manoj Ahuja, Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare (MoA&FW), Government of India visited Project Coordinating Cell, All India Network Project on Pesticide Residues (AINP-PR), ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi today.

He was accompanied by Dr Pramod Kumar Meherda, Additional Secretary, Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare; Dr. Ashish Kumar Srivastava, Joint Secretary (Plant Protection), DA&FW; Dr. Ranjit Singh, Director (PP), DA&FW and Dr. J. P. Singh, Plant Protection Adviser (PPA), Directorate of Plant Protection, Quarantine, and Storage (DPPQS),DA&FW,

Shri Ahuja urged the project scientists to focus on generating quality residue data for ensuring food safety, food security, and trade in the country.

Dr. Vandana Tripathy, Network Coordinator, AINP-PR & Scheme In-charge, MPRNL, briefed about the recent activities and achievements of the Project Coordinating Cell, AINP-PR. She said all the testing laboratories under the scheme are accredited as per ISO/IEC 17025:2017, for generation of quality data. The monitoring data generated under MPRNL scheme is shared with the Ministry of Agriculture for regulatory decisions and educating the farmers about the safe and judicious use of pesticides, she added.

During the visit, the laboratory’s capability of testing more than 400 pesticides in a single run, on GC-MS/MS and LC-MS/MS was demonstrated to the dignitaries.

(Source: All India Network Project on Pesticide Residues, ICAR-IARI, New Delhi)