SEEDS DIVISION Department of Agriculture and Cooperation Welcome

1. SEEDS DIVISION Department of Agriculture and Cooperation Welcome

2. In India per capita arable land and average farm size is one ha or less. It is important to adopt ecologically sustainable, intensive and integrated farming systems. There has been depletion of resources like land and water, soil degradation , higher pollution levels and changing agricultural environment since Green Revolution. The future approach to improving productivity and sustainable agricultural growth has to be seed-fertilizer-irrigation-technologies combination in which high yielding varieties of seed and technologies will play a significant role . The major challenge will be to breed high yielding crops, improve productivity per unit area, develop resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses to address the problems of low productivity.

3. Efforts will have to be made to develop cultivars of short duration and high genetic yield potential with in-built tolerance/resistance to major disease/pest complex, ability to withstand stress conditions like drought, location specific adaptability on marginal and rain fed lands. Expeditious development and application of Agricultural biotechnology can also significantly contribute to enhancement of production and productivity. `Seed’, comprising all forms of propagules, is the basic inputs in agricultural production. Without quality seed, the investments in fertilizer, water, pesticides and other inputs will not yield desired dividends. A sustained increase in agriculture production and productivity is dependent on the continuous development of improved varieties of crops and supply of quality seeds to farmers.

4. The Indian Council of Agricultural Research along with State Agricultural Universities has the responsibility of developing improved varieties and producing the breeder seed . India has one of the biggest public sector agricultural research system with 29 agricultural universities, 12 agricultural institutes and large number of agricultural extension stations to provide the best agriculture solution to the farmers. 3200 improved varieties of different crops have been released/notified for commercial cultivation under the NARS. In the Green Revolution, public sector played a vital role with the introduction of high yielding varieties of wheat and rice . It is, therefore , imperative to make quality seed available to the farmers at affordable prices and at the right time.

5. Indian seed production programme has come a long way since independence. The area under certified seed production has increased from about 500 ha in late 1960s to about 8,57,877 ha in 2004-05.The certified/quality seed production has increased from few thousand quintals to 132 lakh qtls. Although about 40,000 quintals of breeder seed of different crops are produced annually a substantial proportion of farm-saved seed is still used by the farmers particularly in case of self-pollinated crops like rice, wheat, groundnut, pulses etc. Use of farm saved seeds is above 80%.

6. The seed replacement rate (SRR) in different crops is very low in the country . For the major crops wheat and rice, the SRR is only 9.15 and 18.62% respectively. For other crops also the situation is not satisfactory. Even in crops where the hybrids are available and the SRR should be 100%, the SRR is not at that level, the maximum being in bajra that too below 50 percent. Therefore, there is urgent need to raise the replacement rate to 25% in self pollinated crops like wheat and rice, 33% in cross pollinated and 100% in hybrid crops. Demand for industrial crops seeds , pulses, oilseeds, fodder and vegetable crops is increasing. Quality of farm-saved seed needs to be improved along with increasing the availability of certified/quality seed to the farmers. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to improve the quality of farm saved seed through educating farmers, replacement of the seed frequently and demonstration of seed production technology in the farmer’s fields.

7. The country’s requirement of seed to cover 25% of the area for self pollinated crops is 216.64 lakh qtls.The requirement of seed to cover 33% of cross-pollinated crops is 11.17lakh qtls.In case of hybrids the requirement is 14.28 lakh qtls. For Kharif-2005 indents were received for 5735.48 qtls. of breeder seed and 5321.08 qtls. of breeder seed have been allocated. For Rabi-2005-06 indents were received for 14768.31 qtls. of breeder seed and 13142.01 qtls have been allocated to different seed producing agencies.

8. Informal seed supply – In addition to the formal seed supply by the seed producing agencies, a lot of seed is being supplied through a short of informal seed supply system by some of the research institutions like PAU Ludhiana, HAU Hisar, GBPUA&T Pantnagar particularly of the new crop varieties. in the packets of 1 or 2 kg to the farmers every year which helps to increase the area under new varieties with in a short span of time. The system has made impact on agricultural productivity in these areas. Other institutions may further adopt the system. Further, many SAUs have large farms available with them, which can be utilized for production of quality seed particularly when these institutions have all technical know-how and other resources.

9. Crops Requirement Availability All cereals 43,70,546 56, 52,026 All pulses 4,25,854 5,27,802 All oil seeds 3,25,044 7,04,866 Winter cotton 4850 4850 Total 55,47,659 73,10,901 For the Rabi 2005-06, the overall certified and quality seeds availability Quantity in quintals Out of this 73,10,901 Qtls. the seed available with NSC, SFCI and SSCs is 26,28,935 Qtls. ( 35.96% of the total)

10. The seed production, seed distribution is week in the State of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattishgarh, Orissa, Bihar, Jharkhand, Assam, Eastern UP and West Bengal. Development of new varieties having high yield potential and suitable for different agro-climatic conditions is not taking place in most of the State Agriculture Universities.

11. The performance of State Agriculture Universities in terms of development of new varieties released and notified for last 4 years is tabulated below

12. The coordination between State Agriculture Universities and State Directorates of Agriculture is week. The State Extension Machinery is very week in disseminating the high yielding varieties and appropriate production and protection technologies to the farmers. These factors are directly reflecting on the low productivity of main food crops i.e. Rice, Wheat, Pulses and Oilseeds when compared to the productivity of Punjab, Haryana and Tamil Nadu, even though these States have natural resource like land and water.

13. The Department of Agriculture and cooperation has devised an improved system for breeder seed indent. The State Governments may give their views on the proposed system. The State Governments may take immediate action on the implementation of the restructured scheme on development and strengthening of infrastructure facilities for production and distribution of quality seeds, particularly seed village component.

14. Thank You