Dr.YSR Agri Labs Operational guidelines, Structure, Roles and Responsibilities for Dr.YSR Agri Labs GO 116 on 11 December 2019, OPERATIONAL GUIDELINES AND STRUCTURE, ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES FOR Dr.YSR AGRI LABS IN THE STATE OF ANDHRA PRADESH
permission has been accorded to the Special Commissioner of Agriculture, A.P, for establishment of Dr.YSR Agri Labs at Constituency Level (147), District Level (13) and Regional Coding Centres (4) at Visakapatnam, Eluru, Guntur and Tirupati, in the State of Andhra Pradesh to supply quality Agri inputs viz., seeds, fertilizers & pesticides, to the farmers.
Special Commissioner of Agriculture, A.P, has furnished the Operational guidelines, Integration of Existing District Labs with Integrated Agri Labs, Structure, Roles, Responsibilities of Staff, Use of Unified Digital Platform in sampling, Tests to carried out at labs, Center of Excellence, Training, adoption of Lab HR Policy and establishment of Legal Cell at Commissionerate, with a request to issue necessary orders in the matter.
Government after examination of the matter, hereby approve the Operational guidelines, Structure, Roles and Responsibilities for Dr.YSR Agri Labs, as Annexed to this order.
The Special Commissioner of Agriculture, A.P. Guntur, shall take further necessary action, accordingly, in the matter.
YSR Agri Labs Operational guidelines. Constituency Level Labs (Dr. YSR Agri Labs)
ADA (Regular) (in whose jurisdiction that the Constituency level Lab is present) shall be the supervising/monitoring officer.
ADA(Regular) will be assisted with One AO and 2 AEOs.
This Lab shall analyze the samples submitted by the farmers and communicate the results.
It shall also analyze the samples sent from Regional coding centers.
The staff shall conduct camps regularly for collection of samples at village level to create awareness among the farmers.
The Farmers can submit the samples directly or through Agriculture staff working in that Mandal / village.
MAOs can draw service samples in his / her jurisdiction and get them analyzed in these Labs.
Input Dealers also can get their Agricultural Inputs analyzed at Integrated Labs on payment basis.
The following tests shall be carried out in Dr.YSR Agri Labs:
Seed Testing: Physical Purity, Moisture and Germination Tests.
Fertilizer Testing: Availability of Nitrogen, Phosphorus & Potash, Boran and Sulphur.
Pesticide Testing: Shall act as Collection point and sample will be sent to the District Lab and results will be communicated to the Farmers.
In case of any field complaints on seed failure, Lab staff shall collect the leaf samples in Insulated Thermal Box and sent them to DNA Lab for Analysis.
YSR Agri Labs District Level Labs.
The District level Labs are fully equipped Legal labs (As per statutory requirements), where agriculture Inputs are tested as per Legal norms.
Asst Director of Agriculture shall be appointed as Analyst and supported by 4 AOs & 4 AEOs each for Seed, Fertilizer and Pesticide.
The District Lab analyzes the samples sent by the Regional coding centers and communicates the results through Unified Digital platform.
Existing Three(3) Seed, Three(3) Fertilizer and Five (5) pesticide testing Labs shall be integrated in the respective District Level Lab.
YSR Agri Labs Regional Coding Centers
Each Regional Coding Center shall have a DDA supported by three AOs & three AEOs.
The Regional coding centers shall code the samples received and send them to the concerned District level/Constituency level labs as allocated by UDP.
The present state level Fertilizer & Pesticide coding centers in Guntur shall be merged and act as Regional Coding Center, Guntur.
YSR Agri Labs Quality Assurance of Agricultural Inputs:
To ensure the availability of the Agri inputs to the farmers, quality check of the Seeds, Fertilizers and Pesticides shall be done in the following ways by District & Constituency level integrated Labs.
Pre-approval Certification Programme: Quality of the Inputs shall be ensured through testing of Agriculture Inputs before they are released in to market. Initially Agriculture Inputs are tested on random basis and once capacities of the Labs are increased, all the batches/lots are tested prior to release in to the market. Considering the capacities of Labs with technologies available at present, initially, 20% of the Seed lots, 10% of the Pesticides and 100% of the Fertilizers shall be covered under Preapproval system.
Post-release monitoring system: 5% of the pre-release approved batches and 5% of remaining batches shall be randomly tested to monitor the functionality of the pre-release system. The Post-approval monitoring samples will be tested in Dist level Labs. Samples will be drawn as per Legal Act provisions.
Farmer Samples Testing: The Constituency level labs shall handle Farmers samples and test them at free of Cost. If these samples are found to be Sub-Standard, the concerned MAO shall take sample as per legal procedures in vogue.
Random sampling – Unified Digital Platform-Automation The selection of samples in Pre approval certification program and post approval monitoring system shall be done through an automated system called “Unified Digital Platform” where selection of Kind & Variety, batch/lot, dealer outlet and company is random. This platform connects the all the input manufacturers, Dealers, Sample collection team, Input Inspectors, Coding Centres, Lab Analysts and Farmers.
a. Preapproval Certification Programme(TIER I)
Entire process runs on a Unified Digital Platform. All the Input manufacturers, Dealers, Sample Collection team, Regional Coding centers, Input Inspectors, Lab Analysts and Farmers shall use this platform.
Each packet shall be ensured with a barcode or QR code on the packing for traceability.
All the input Manufacturers/ companies shall offer all their products that are intended for sale in the state for testing by submitting their batch/lot wise final destination details in Unified digital Platform besides uploading their own
Lab issued or NABL accredited Lab issued Quality Certificate of the batch/lot.
The Unified Digital Platform (UDP) software randomly selects a Dealer outlet and sends an Alert message to the sample collection team.
The Sample collection team shall collect the sample and feeds sampling details in UDP.
The sample collection team shall hand over the sample drawn to Regional coding centre.
The Regional coding center shall send the sample to the Lab (randomly selected by UDP) for analysis.
The Lab shall test the sample and results are fed in to UDP.
The Standard Sample will be allotted an Approval No and a Certificate shall be issued.
In case of Substandard Sample, the Manufacturer/company shall withdraw the stock from the market and Local Input Inspector should ensure the withdrawal.
After withdrawal the manufacturer/company shall submit the information within 7 (Seven) days on the disposal of Substandard Batches/lots from the market
Since the drawl of Samples in Preapproval system is not as per Act, Legal action shall not be initiated against manufacturer/company.
The Unified Digital Platform shall be made available in Mobile phone as an App and whenever an Input Inspector visits a Dealer Outlet, he /she can scan the barcodes on the products/ verify the lot no. on packing and know the Manufacturer submitted data, sample drawn date, analysis data, Certificate Approval No.
The minimum requirement for allowing any input company to sell their products in the market is that “the company should have submitted their stock positioning particulars at dealers in the Unified Digital platform prior to sale”.
Reanalysis shall be allowed on payment basis if the manufacture/company applies within 3 days of communicating the results.
b. Post Approval Monitoring System (Cross Verification -TIER II)
5% of the Pre approved batches / Lots shall be randomly selected by Unified Digital Platform for Post release testing from the batches/lots that were already certified in the Pre approval certification programme to cross verify the results.
In addition to the above, 5% of the remaining batches / lots shall also be selected by UDP for Post release testing.
The above Samples shall be drawn as per legal procedures and shall be sent to the respective Regional coding center.
The Regional coding center shall send the sample to the concerned Lab that is randomly selected by UDP for analysis.
Legal action shall be initiated against the Manufacturer/company in case of any substandard samples and an enquiry shall be conducted to know, how the Product got Certified in Pre approval certification programme.
Reanalysis shall be allowed as per Act provisions.
YSR Agri Labs Farmer Samples
During registration of the farmer sample, the constituency lab staff shall ensure the bill of purchase of that Agri input.
The Lab staff shall update the details of Seed, Fertilizer and pesticide samples received by them in UDP.
The Lab staff shall communicate the test results to the Farmers by hand / through mode of Mobile Message / by post in shortest possible time.
In case of Sub-standard samples, the UDP alerts MAO, ADA (Regular), DDA O/o JDA and Integrated Lab section of Commissionerate.
MAO shall visit the outlet from which the Farmer purchased the product and issue Stop Sale Notice to prevent further sale of substandard Agricultural Input to Farmers.
Further MAO shall draw the sample as per legal provisions and send to Regional coding center for further testing. Based on the results obtained MAO shall initiate legal action duly following the laid down procedure as per the Law.
Structure, Roles and Responsibilities:
YSR Agri Labs Integrated Agri Labs Section, Agriculture Commissionerate:
Integrated Labs section of Agricultural Commissionerate shall monitor the Constituency level labs (Dr YSR Agri Labs) through the District JDA Offices and shall directly monitor the District Level Labs (Existing & Proposed), State Labs, Regional Coding Centers to assure supply of Quality Agriculture Inputs in Market.
The Section shall take care of quality control aspects of Seeds, Fertilizers, Pesticides, Biopesticides, Biofertilizers, Bio-Agents, Bio products etc.
The Section shall monitor the quality control of Agricultural Inputs using Unified Digital Platform (Autonomous software) for random sampling.
The Section shall Organise Trainings to the Staff working in the Integrated labs
The section shall monitor the Sub-Standard / Misbranded/ Spurious samples Cases through Legal Cell of Agriculture Commissionerate.
Section shall take up the budgetary requirement of Quality Control Labs.
District Level Monitoring of Dr YSR Agri Labs
The DDA (PP) working in the JDA office of the district is responsible for the monitoring of Constituency level Dr YSR Agri Labs.
He /she should ensure that the Constituency level Dr YSR Agri Labs meet their Objectives.
The DDA should regularly communicate the progress and issues of the Integrated Labs to the section of the Agriculture Commissionerate.
YSR Agri District Labs :
The District Integrated Agri Labs are Act Labs and shall handle testing of Manufacturer/Producer/Dealer / Distributor Samples of Agriculture Inputs.
The District Lab should test pesticide samples submitted by Constituency labs.
The District integrated Labs shall accept & analyse the Agriculture Input samples of the rural Constituency in which it is located.
An Assistant Director of Agriculture shall be appointed to monitor/supervise the District Lab, supported by 12 AOs and 12 AEOs.
The District Staff must undergo at least, one (1) training per year on latest knowhow.
District Labs shall act as Nodal labs for Constituency level labs and guide them technically.
The District Labs shall regularly organise hands on training to the Constituency Lab staff.
The District Lab staff should conduct technical audit of Constituency labs and submit report by 15th March every year to Agricultural Commissionerate.
Constituency Level Dr YSR Agri Lab
The Constituency level Dr YSR Agri Lab shall take up of Farmer samples and samples which found substandard/misbranded shall be re sampled as per legal provisions and tested at District Labs.
The Constituency level Dr YSR Agri Lab shall take up Seed and Fertilizer samples testing and will act as Satellite Center / Collection Center for Pesticide samples.
The Constituency Lab shall get the Pesticide samples submitted by Farmers at respective District Labs and communicate the results to farmers.
The ADA (Regular) in whose jurisdiction, the Dr YSR Agri Lab present is the supervising officer and responsible for the day to day administration of the Lab.
The Constituency Lab shall have One AO and 2 AEOs.
The AO & AEOs shall undergo training in Seed, Fertilizer and Pesticide testing Labs.
YSR Agri Labs Regional coding Centres:
Regional Coding Center shall accept seed, Fertilizer and pesticide samples.
The role of Regional coding centers is to code the sample and send them to the concerned labs as allotted by Unified Digital Platform (UDP).
These Centres shall maintain the secrecy of the sample source and prevent manipulations in the Quality Control system.
The present state level Fertilizer & Pesticide coding centers in Guntur shall be merged and act as Regional Coding Center, Guntur.
YSR Agri LabsCentre of Excellence
The State Laboratories present in State Seed Farm, Amaravati Temple Town shall act as Centre for Excellence to adopt new technologies, cultivation concepts and to integrate them in to Agricultural Department.
This Centre shall guide the Districts Labs in advanced technology to meet new agricultural challenges.
YSR Agri Labs Legal Cell
A Legal cell shall be established in the Commissionerate to assist the field functionaries in handling Sub-standard samples and Court documentation.
Whenever a sample is found Sub-Standard the details of the Case shall be transferred to Legal Cell.
A Senior Legal advisor along with a Judicial officer and Junior Legal advisor shall be appointed for Legal Cell supported with one ADA and 2 AOs.
YSR Agri Labs Lab HR Policy
Lab HR policy shall be adopted to effectively utilize the services of trained staff (ADAs, AOs and AEOs).
The Staff shall be retained in the Labs to utilize their expertise for a period of 10 years and the transfers shall be done from Lab to Lab only during this period.
At any point of time the transfers in the Lab should not be more than 1/3rd.