With India?s cultivable land declining owing to the pressure of industrialisation, increasing farm productivity is the key to meeting the country?s food security concerns, and quality seeds have a crucial role to play in this matrix. National Seeds Corporation (NSC) was set up by the central government in 1963 to meet the Indian farmers? requirement of quality seeds. The company holds about 10% share in the domestic non-hybrid seeds market. In an interview to FE?s Noor Mohammad, NSC chairman and managing director SK Roongta discussed his company’s business plans. Excerpts:
Why is it important for farmers to buy seeds from the market?
Cultivable land is decreasing while foodgrain demand is going up. There is a need for increasing agricultural productivity. Seeds, irrigation, fertiliser and soil management are the essential inputs of productivity. Soil fertility is also important.
One advantage of using quality seeds is that it can increase productivity by 15%. If farmers give proper irrigation, fertiliser and pesticides, the yield can increase by 30-35%. In major crops like wheat and paddy, the difference in yield from one state to another can be as high as 100%. In Punjab, for example, the average yield of paddy is 40 quintal per hectare while in Bihar it is just 11.5 quintal. The reason is Punjab farmers do cultivation in a scientific manner. They use quality seeds, provide irrigation, and give inputs like fertiliser and pesticides.
A wheat farmer can use his own seeds. But the risk is that the farmer’s seeds may have some sort of infestations or admixture of other varieties, which would affect germination and reduce the yield. What is recommended is that the farmer should buy certified seeds from the market instead of using his own seeds. We have 11 regional and 83 area offices in the country.
The central government has got a scheme to increase the productivity of major crops. One component of the scheme is the seed replacement ratio (SRR).
But seeds available in the market are costly. Considering that constraint, how is the demand for certified seeds picking up?
With a view to ensuring that farmers get seeds at affordable price, the central government has launched various schemes like the National Food Security Mission, Integrated Scheme of Oilseeds, Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana and Macro Management of Agriculture. These are government of India schemes being implemented through states. Under these schemes, certified seeds are given to farmers at subsidised rates so that even poor and marginal farmers can afford it.
SRR for major crops like wheat and paddy is 33%. That means farmers should replace their seeds every three year.
But so far we have achieved SRR of 23-25%. Now the ultimate target is to reach 33%. We hope to reach the target in 5-7 years.
Which are the other agencies engaged in similar business and what is NSC’s market share?
State Farm Corporation of India is another central PSU engaged in a similar business. Besides, there are 15 state seeds corporations. All these seventeen companies together produce about 171 lakh quintal of certified seeds. NSC’s share is 10%. We have 11 regional and 83 area offices in the country. We had a turnover of R645 crore during 2010-11.
What is your focus area now?
Since farmers have good availability of certified seeds in cereals like wheat and paddy, we are now concentrating on increasing the availability of certified seeds of oilseeds, pulses and fodder. Our seed production during 2005-06 was 4.72 lakh quintal, which increased to 16.83 lakh quintal in 2010-11.
Are you also exporting seeds?
Our seed export is limited to Saarc countries like Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
Do you also plan to increase the production of hybrid seeds?
NSC is slowly moving into the production of hybrid seeds in maize, paddy, sorghum and pearl millet. NSC got into the hybrid seeds business in 2007-08. The market response has been good as farmers are increasingly switching to hybrid seeds. This is despite the fact that hybrid seeds are 4-5 times costlier than non-hybrid seeds. In India, most successful hybrid seeds are vegetables like tomato, chillies and lady finger. The second biggest success is maize. The third is going to be paddy.