What is the Full Form of AGMARK

AGMARK: Agricultural Mark

AGMARK stands for Agricultural Mark. AGMARK is an agricultural certification mark used as a sign or a symbol of good quality in Agricultural products.

1. AGMARK is made with two words, 'Ag,' which means agriculture, and the word 'mark,' which implies certification mark.
2. AGMARK is a certificate for agricultural products that ensure the setup by the Directorate of Marketing and Inspecting,
3. The head office of AGMARK is located in 'Faridabad' (Haryana); it is legally enforced in India by the Agricultural Produce (Grading and Marking) Act of 1937, which was amended in the year 1986.
4. The current AGMARK standard covers the quality standard for 225 different commodities for various pulses, cereals, vegetable oil, essential oil, and semi-processed products like vermicelli and fruit.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmer welfare is entirely under the control of the Central Government.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmer welfare is divided into two categories that are "The Department of Agriculture, Co-operation and Farmer Welfare" and "The Department of Agriculture Research and Education." The Directorate of Marketing and Inspection (DMI) works under the Department of Agriculture, Co-operation, and Farmer Welfare. The AGMARK certification office work under the Directorate of Marketing and Inspection (DMI).

The framework for creating the AGMARK certification was done by a British professor Archibald MacDonald Livingstone; this idea for AGMARK certification was proposed to the Agriculture and Marketing Advisory of the Indian Government in the year 1934 to 1941. In this task, he was helped by hundreds of agriculturists.

The primary need for the AGMARK certification was to uplift the small farmers who did not get a reasonable price for their Agriculture products; so by introducing AGMARK, the small farmers could directly sell their product to the customer and not to the dealer.

Laboratories of AGMARK in Country

India's government has installed several CAL (Central AGMARK Laboratory) and RALs (Regional AGMARK Laboratories) laboratories.

The farmers or the manufacturers can get an AGMARK certification for their products by fulfilling the criteria mentioned by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmer Welfare; the state-owned laboratories have full authority to test the product and provide it with AGMARK certification.

The Central AGMARK Laboratory is located in Nagpur only, and there are eleven Regional AGMARK Laboratories in India; they are located in eleven nodal cities of the country that are Bhopal, Rajkot, New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Kanpur, Kochi, Guntur, Amritsar, Jaipur.

The Regional AGMARK Laboratories have almost all the modern equipment that is needed for testing the farm product, the working staff of the laboratory is well qualified, and a good team of certified researchers is also available in every Regional AGMARK Laboratory, sometimes the test report of Laboratories may differ a little bit.

The Testing in Central AGMARK Laboratory Includes Various Steps and Processes that are Listed below:

1. Chemical Analysis: In this process or step, the agricultural product that the manufacturer is sending for testing purposes, the entire chemical content of the sample is studied in detail. Its quantity and quality are considered strictly, and only a fixed ratio of chemical content or preservatives are allowed in Agricultural products. If the balance of chemical content exceeds a given limit, the product is rejected and does not get an AGMARK certificate
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2. Microbiological Analysis: This process is used in the AGMARK laboratories to identify, detect, and enumerate the microorganism in the sample product. Also, the quantity of disease-causing microorganisms in the sample product is checked.
3. Pesticide Residue: In testing the sample product, the researchers calculate the quantity of pesticide that can degrade that Agricultural product or may cause infection to its consumer.
4. Aflatoxin Analysis: This is the final process while checking the sample product for the certification of AGMARK; this method is done by using various scientific techniques that are Enzyme-linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA), High-Performance Liquid (HPLC) and Thin Layer Chromatography (TLC). The Thin Layer Chromatography method is widely used among the research group. Moreover, this method is quite a potent carcinogen in various animals. All these methods are used for checking the quality of Ground spices, Whole Spices, Ghee, Vegetable oils, butter, ghee, honey, mustard oils, wheat products (suji, maida, and atta), Soyabean seed, gram flour, bajra, jowar, ginger, Bengal gram, Oil cake, and other food products.