AgroStar announced the opening of India's Largest Agri Advisory centre and a Quality Assurance Lab for Seeds and Fertilisers at its headquarters in Pune, Maharashtra. The Agri Advisory Centre and quality lab were inaugurated on 21st May 2022 by Dheeraj Kumar, IAS, Commissioner Agriculture, Maharashtra along with the guest of honour, Umesh Chandra Sarangi, IAS, Retd. Additional Chief Sec (Home), Govt. Of Maharashtra.
AgroStar Quality Assurance Lab (AQAL), is a part of their R&D efforts and innovation with the single intent to ensure farmers get the absolute best quality inputs through the AgroStar platform. The lab is equipped with advanced equipment to conduct seed testing as per ISTA (International Seed Testing Association) protocols and fertilizer testing as per international standards. It is operated by a team of highly qualified professionals that include seed technologists, seed analysts, quality control professionals, and chemistry quality analysts.
AQAL will carry out tests like physical purity test, moisture test, standard germination test, maintenance of relative humidity, temperature & time to time monitoring of germination samples. The seed lab has already undertaken more than 150 seed germination & other tests. The lab is in the process of receiving accreditation from NABL (National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration) and ISTA (International Seed Testing Association).
The fertilizer testing capability will help in testing the quality of all the fertilizers including water-soluble fertilizers and other micro and macronutrients before supplying them to farmers.
Agri Advisory Centre has a team of 500+ Agri experts (BSc. graduates and post-graduates) providing real-time advisory services to farmers at no cost charged. Be it guidance on seed varieties, preventive measures against pests and diseases or crop nutrition management, these advisors are helping farmers to grow good quality crops, increase their yield and reduce their cost of cultivation
Speaking at the inauguration, Dr. Devraj Arya, Vice President - Farm Solutions and Regulatory Affairs, AgroStar said “The quality of seeds determines the overall value of crop yield. Low-quality seeds can lead to poor germination and vigour and thereby impacting crop yield, which ultimately negatively impacts the potential earnings of a farmer. It is critical for farmers to use high-quality seeds, fertilizers and other input products in order to get high-quality produce and finally better prices in the market. The AgroStar Quality Assurance Lab will determine the quality assurance of seed and fertilizers before supplying the products to our farmers on the AgroStar platform. AQAL will also ensure testing of crop nutrition products (Fertilisers & micronutrients) to ensure a high-quality supply of fertilizers and crop nutrition products to our farmers and later we will expand our services for pesticide analysis in near future.”
Shardul Sheth, Cofounder, and CEO, AgroStar said, “We identified early in our journey that there is a knowledge gap in the Agri ecosystem along with a prevalence of spurious and poor-quality products in the sector. With this largest Agri Advisory centre in India and our Quality Assurance Lab, we are attempting to solve both these issues. We pride ourselves on providing high-quality Agri inputs and real-time actionable advisory to our farmers that can have a direct impact on their yield and their income. AgroStar’s lab-tested Agri inputs combined with the valuable real-time advisory are a huge step towards the mission of Helping Farmers Win by doubling their income.”
