Making farming an attractive profession-Focus on self pollinated seeds

Making farming an attractive profession- 

Focus on self pollinated seeds

Seed is very important input in Agriculture & any negligence  will reduce productivity and quality of produce even if you follow all other practices perfectly. In case of self pollinated crops  like paddy, Groundnut, Pulses, farmers can do seed selection on their own and reduce seed cost drastically & also sue of seed quality.  The seed requirement for acre of land are paddy-30 Kgs, Groundnut kernels - 80 to 120 Kgs, Green Gram - 6 Kgs, Black Gram- 8 Kgs, Chickpea - 20-25 Kgs, Red Gram- 4 Kgs.

GOAP came out with seed village program with an objective of saturating villages with introduction of high yielding varieties in self pollinated crops. The program did not create impact due to influence of vested interest seed companies on field staff, lack of transparency etc.

The annual requirement of breeder seed in Telugu states of all self pollinated crops is estimated as 3500 MT & Agri University is meeting  100 % requirements , besides supplying to other states. Seed companies, APSSDC, MARKFED, OILFED, source breeder seed from University & multiply them in registered farmers fields. After certification from APSSCA, the seed is released to markets as certified seed.

Reality is different. Seed multiplication agencies duly source breeder seed from university, make payments & collect receipts as proofs. The breeder seed is given to registered growers for multiplication and proofs are created for certification agency. As the systematically grown certified is expensive, they are sourcing some produce from open markets, put the grain to strict sieving and grading and get it certified as foundation seed by managing the system and releasing into market.

Farmers are selling their produce for low and buying the same in the packet as certified seed by paying very high. It is reported that recent Groundnut distributed with subsidy is mostly sourced from markets & managed as certified seeds.  If we look at the balance  sheets of seed companies, personal wealth of the promoters, concealed wealth of culprits in the chain, political nexus etc, one can easily make out how the bread maker of this country is being cheated and looted.

My father used to pick the best panicles of paddy grains, treat them with cow dung, neem etc and use as seed for next season.  In present days the own seed selection from crop has come down drastically, though the seed can be picked from certified seed crop for 4 seasons continuously.  With this type of spurious certified seed being made available, the seed selection from crop may not be a wise move. End result is increased seed cost , low productivity & quality of produce, resulting in  poor ROI to farmers.

Macro/micro economists, policy makers, political parties claim as voice of farmers, rural managers & rational thinking citizens , have to develop flair for addressing grass root issues. If we fear touching these issues, there is no point in giving lectures on  GDP, Growth rates, Growth engines etc.

BGR

(Part 3 will be on cross pollinated crops)