Government Plans Outlets For Sale Of Certified Seeds

The government proposes to open outlets for the sale of certified seeds, including hybrids, of different crops in each block to improve the availability of quality seeds for boosting crop production. Both the public as well as the private sector seed producers will be involved in this programme.

The agriculture ministry also proposes to set up modern seed storage complexes with Japanese assistance.

Two such complexes are being planned to begin with. One complex already exists in Karnal. These complexes would facilitate long-term storage of breeder seeds which are used for producing certified seed for sale to farmers.

Besides, there is also a proposal to set up a series of tissue culture units with Israeli collaboration to make available high-quality planting material to cultivators.

 

These measures are part of the governments efforts to augment the availability of good quality seeds at reasonable prices so that the farmers could replace the old seeds with new ones.

Hybrid seeds, in particular, are generally too costly for the average farmers to afford their use. The relatively poorer farmers find it difficult to change seeds every year.

The agriculture ministry feels that the ninth plan target of achieving an agricultural production growth rate of 4.5 per cent could be achieved only if the crop productivity could be stepped up significantly with the use of better quality seeds.

Frequent replacement of seed is also necessary to ensure good yield as the quality of the seed tends to break down with every re-use.

It is believed that the improved seeds can help raise crop productivity by at least 10 per cent.

Realising that unlike other products crop seeds cannot be manufactured in factories, Krishi Bhawan has started the process of making advance assessment of seed requirement and estimation of likely availability and shortfall. This information would constitute the national seed budget.

The state governments have been advised to work out the seed requirement of different varieties three years in advance taking into consideration the normal demand for different varieties and hybrids and the farmers preferences for newly developed strains.

The national seed budget would facilitate planning for the production of adequate quantities of seeds of different types.

In cases where seed of a particular variety could not be produced within the states, the state governments would be required to make firm tie-up arrangements with the public and private sector seeds producers for the timely supply of these seeds.

The main objective of this exercise would be to meet the demand for quality seed as comprehensively as possible, according to the agriculture ministry sources.