We asked Raju Barwale, managing director of Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Company (MAHYCO), India's largest private sector seed company which provides seeds to farmers throughout India (162 products in 38 crop species), what the facts are. Here are some answers and statistics he gave us: nAnnual sales of public and private sector seed companies in India today are in the range of Rs 2,500-3,000 crore, of which the private sector accounts for Rs 1,600 crore ($353.04 million). This excludes the seeds that Government distributes free of cost to farmers.

How does one explain this huge turnover of the public and private seed sectors combined if only 10 per cent of farmers buy new seeds, as one paper claimed recently? n At least three-quarters of the seeds of hybrid crops like maize, sorghum (jowar), millet (bajra), sunflower, cotton and vegetables are supplied by a hundred private sector seed companies, the rest comes from the public sector.

n On the basis of these figures, the number of farmers buying new seed rather than using saved seed for jowar alone works out to a million farmers!n All hybrid vegetable seeds for bhendi, tomato, cabbage, brinjal, gourds (pumpkin, karela, etc) are also purchased because farmers find the returns from them are much higher than from conventional seeds.

n Of the four million cotton farmers in India, 2.5 million use hybrid cotton seeds because of higher yield and better quality. This means that 2.5 million cotton farmers buy fresh seed each year because they know that the yield and quality from hybrid seeds that are saved declines with each planting.

n Of the 1.5 million cotton farmers in Maharashtra, 1.2 million use hybrid cotton and only 150.000 use non-hybrid cotton. They buy these seeds from the market each year because they have experienced the benefits of new technology.

n India was a food deficit country with only 375 million people in the mid`60s, producing only 80 million tonnes of food. Today, it grows over 200 million tonnes for one billion people thanks to the seed revolution.n Over a million rural women get part-time employment in the seed industry in just one crop - cotton.

We also found that a survey by ORG-MARG last year showed that an overwhelming majority of cotton farmers in this country prefer hybrid seeds to conventional seeds because they experience higher yields, faster growth more profitability and better crop quality with less disease and fewer past problems.

nThe study covered over 1,000 farmers in seven key agricultural states. Overall, more than 80 per cent cited more yield as the reason for using hybrid seeds.

nThe preference for hybrid seeds over conventional seeds cuts across farmers with holdings of all sizes - from small farms to medium-sized farms to big farms. Crop-wise, 78 per cent of farmers growing cotton said that the advantage of using hybrid seeds was higher yields.

n Ninety-four per cent of those interviewed said they use hybrid seeds, with 80 per cent citing increased production for doing so, while 38 per cent said hybrid crops grow faster. Farmers in states like Madhya Pradesh (87 per cent), Maharashtra (85 per cent) and Haryana (82 per cent) topped those who said that hybrids increase yields.

n The study found that the use of hybrid and/or improved seeds has become the norm in some states - 99 per cent of farmers interviewed in Haryana, 98 per cent in Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, 97 per cent in Punjab and 94 per cent in Gujarat said they use hybrid seeds.

(Excerpted from Biotechnology Update)