Indian Seed Lab Remains Unused, 13 Years Later

Although the Indian government has been at the center of controversy since banning cotton exports in 2010, the state government in Punjab has done its part by investing heavily in the nation’s cotton industry, having built a state-of-the-art seed testing laboratory in the city of Faridkot. Unfortunately, that investment of almost $450,000 has been wasted, since the facility was built in 1997 but hasn’t been used for a single day since it opened, according to an article published on www.indianexpress.com.

The cutting-edge lab was fully stocked with machinery designed to test seed quality, germination and lamination. A few years after it was built, the ability to perform DNA testing was added at a cost of more than $200,000, yet the facility has never been used, despite being the only lab in the state that can perform DNA testing. In fact, there are only two seed-testing labs in the entire state of Punjab.

Although the state has made a large investment in the facility and machinery, the laboratory requires a staff of 11 people to operate, and that staff has never been fully assembled due to budget constraints and political maneuvering.