Federal Seed Certification and Registration Department (FSC&RD) is a statutory body established under section of the Seed Act, 1976. Its head office is at Islamabad and have 27 field stations/laboratories. The department is a regulatory arm of the Ministry of National Food Security and Research regarding plant varietal registration, seed certification and market monitoring for provision of quality seed.

FSC&RD is responsible for DUS evaluation of the applicant varieties for Protection under the Plant Breeders’ Rights Act, 2016. The Registry has to work in close coordination with FSC&RD as the department has effective role in important activities of the Registry like novelty assessment, characterization of the variety, infringements of a protection rights, intensity of the infringements, etc.,

FSC&RD has also to coordinate with PGRI for safe transfer of protected material to be used as reference in the DUS evaluation.