Foodgrains: Seeds Development & Production
India is a labor-abundant and land-scarce country. Agricultural growth therefore largely depends upon raising productivity of land. The generation and diffusion of new yield improving technologies is therefore critical in sustaining agricultural growth. As varietal development is embedded in seeds, they are therefore primarily responsible for triggering progress in agricultural sector.
The seed sector has made impressive progress over the last four decades. The area under certified seeds has increased from less than 500 hectares in 1962-63 to over 5 lakh hectares in 1999-2000. The quantum of quality seeds now has crossed 150 lakh quintals.
Types of seeds
Indian Seeds programme largely adheres to the limited generation system for seed multiplication. The system recognizes three generations, namely, breeder, foundation and certified seed and provides adequate safeguards for quality assurance in the seed multiplication chain to maintain the purity of variety as it flows from the breeders to the farmers.
Fig 1: Generations of seed.
Technology Linkages
Indian seed programme includes the participation of Central and State governments, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), State Agricultural Universities (SAU) system, public sector, co-operative sector and private sector institutions. Seed sector in India consists of two national level corporations i.e. National Seeds Corporation (NSC) and State Farms Corporation of India (SFCI)', 14 State Seed Corporations (SSCs) and about 100 major seed companies. For quality control and certification, there are 21 State Seed Certification Agencies (SSCAs) and 90 State Seed Testing Laboratories (SSTLs). The private sector has started to play a significant role in the production and distribution of seeds. However, the organized seed sector particularly for food crops cereals continues to be dominated by the public sector.
The most critical and basic input for agricultural output is quality seed, which accounts for 25-30 per cent of yield increase. In India, 80 per cent of the farmers rely on farm-saved seeds. The production and distribution of seeds is a complex process involving farmers, growers, government agencies, research institutions and other stakeholders.
Agencies involved in seed production and quality control
Source: http://seednet.gov.in
Seed Policies
Policy initiatives taken by Government of India during 1960s and 1970s for quality seed production and distribution of improved plant varieties developed by the scientists, is one of the reasons for our self sufficiency in food grains.
The government regulates the seed industry and the seed trade in various respects. The Seed Act of 1966, the Seeds Control Order of 1983, and the Seeds Policy of 1988 are the major components of policy specific to the industry. The seed industry has also been subject to policies relating to industrial licensing and direct foreign investment that are applicable to all industry. There have been two recent developments. In September 2001, the Plant Variety Protection and Farmer’s Rights Act came into being. In June 2002, the government announced a new seeds policy that significantly alters the framework of regulation.
Fig 2: All India area, production & yield of Food-grains from 1950-51 to 2006-07 along with percentage coverage under irrigation
Source: Ministry of Agriculture
Land under cultivation has increased 26 % since 1950, but augmentation in food-grains production has been four folds i.e. from 50.82 million tons to 208 million tons in 2005-06. This feat in agriculture production can be credited largely to the availability of irrigation facilities to remote areas and to biotechnological interventions in varietal development. The total yield from each hectare of land has increased from 522 kg/ha in 1950 to 1,750 kg/ha in 2004-05 and there has also been an increase of 26 % in the land covered under irrigation (Figure 1).
Variety Development
Variety development is predominantly carried out in the public sector, although in recent years there is growing private sector involvement. While the public sector is involved in production and distribution of low-value high volume seeds like cereals, pulses and oilseeds, the private sector seed industry is growing in high-value, low-volume segments like vegetables and horticultural crops. The private sector is also actively involved in developing bio-engineered crops of cotton, oilseeds, and other crops. The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), operating through 30 All India Coordinated Crop Improvement Projects (AICCIPs), five Crop Directorates, and seven National Research Centers co-ordinates public sector plant breeding. Basic genetic material, from which new varieties are developed, is available from the institutions’ own resources and from the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR), through which India has established a working relationship with international agricultural research centers.
Source: www.ccmb.res.in/
Seed Production
Fig 3: Total quality seed production by National Agricultural Research System
Source: Ministry of Agriculture Annual Reports of relevant years
Fig 4: Total breeder seed production by ICAR
Source: ICAR Annual Reports of relevant years
Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR), the primary institute working on R&D of varieties is also a key player in producing breeder seeds. A major rise in breeder seed production has been seen since last seven years in the institute. The production has nearly doubled from 2,379.34 tonnes in the year 2001-02 to 5,291 tonnes in 2007-2008 (Figure 3).
Cereals
Table 1: Number of Notified Seeds of Cereals produced
Species |
1971-80 |
1981-90 |
1991-00 |
2001-07 |
PADDY |
203 |
192 |
193 |
|
WHEAT |
68 |
73 |
||
BARLEY |
18 |
20 |
Source: http://seednet.gov.in/
The four major cereals of India are namely Paddy, Wheat, Barley and Triticale. Among them Paddy and Wheat are the most researched with Paddy having an edge over Wheat. The trend in Table-1 below shows marked increase in release of notified varieties from 1970 onwards. Among food-grains, production of cereals has increased fourfold.
State Trends
The states have a major role in developing varieties specific to a particular state. Uttar Pradesh leads all the states in area and productivity of Foodgrains though the yield kg/ha is low as compared to Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and Haryana (Figure 4). Punjab which is one-third of Uttar Pradesh in area produces nearly more than half of Foodgrains as produced by U.P., the reason being the yield, which is the highest ranging upto 3,986 kg/ha.
Fig 5: Area and production of food grains during 2004-2005 and 2005-06 with respect to major food grains producing states of India
Source: Ministry of Agriculture
The major rice producing states during 2005-06 were West Bengal (14.51 Million Tonnes), followed by Andhra Pradesh (11.70 MT) and Uttar Pradesh (11.13MT) while in wheat production U.P (24.07 MT) was the highest producer followed by Punjab (14.49 MT) and Haryana (8.86 MT) (Figure 5).
Fig 6: Three largest Cereal producing states in 2005-06
Source: Ministry of Agriculture
The increase in agricultural production, however, has brought in its wake, uneven development, across regions, crops, and also across different sections of farming community. As per Economic survey 2007, the gross domestic product has steadily declined from 36.4 per cent in 1982-83 to 17.5 percent in 2007-08. The growth rate of agriculture over a period of time has remained lower than the growth in non-agriculture sectors and this decelerating trend is a cause of concern. The gap between the growth rates of agriculture and non-agricultural sectors began to widen since 1981-82, and more particularly since 1996-97, because of acceleration in the growth of industry and services sectors. Between 1950-51 and 2006-07, production of foodgrains increased at an average annual rate of 2.5 per cent compared to the growth of population which averaged 2.1 per cent during this period. The rate of growth of foodgrains production, however, decelerated to 1.2 per cent during 1990-2007, lower than annual rate of growth of population, averaging 1.9 per cent.
This sharp decline in the rate of growth of foodgrains production can be attributed to the slackening in the pace of rapid improvement in the yield levels which points to the need for some technological interventions. Even Dr. Manmohan Singh, PM, India has also reiterated that there is a need for a second green revolution as the technologies and strategies unleashed by the first green revolution seem to have run their course. In fact the World Bank’s World Development Report (WDR) 2008, which was recently launched in India, says agriculture must be given a more prominent place in government and donor priority.
Because of this grim picture of the agriculture, recently the government of India launched two programmes to invigorate and pump up the agricultural sector:
But still, to bring about rapid transformation in this sector other than these programmes the long-term policy framework also needs to be strengthened and focused on improving inter- and intra-sectoral linkages. In addition, there is a need to put together all resources for an outcome oriented research programme especially in the areas using high-yielding varieties of seeds, extension support for facilitating adoption of improved practices, and market access.
Points to ponder
India has rich biodiversity in diverse geographical regions. The area under cultivation is spread across various states, some of which is irrigated while some is rainfed. It is observed that the number of varieties released is more in irrigated areas as compared to the number for rainfed areas. The twin effect of hybrid seeds and proper irrigation facilities conspicuously enhance the yield, that’s why more and more varieties are being developed for irrigated areas.
The focus of R&D in HYV is generally on areas which have all the amenities to reap superior yield. The lack of suitable varieties for rainfed upland and lowland areas, flood prone or cold tolerant varieties is one of the major reasons why some areas are still uncovered by modern varieties. They are still sowing traditional non hybrid seeds which are sometimes inferior, susceptible and disease prone notwithstanding the harsh vagaries of weather resulting in low harvest. This featured release of varieties to irrigated ecosystems hampers the potential of the land being extracted fully. The seed strategy should therefore focus on areas which can be brought under HYV program, such that a paradigm shift can be made from emphasis on technologically saturated areas to untouched areas.
The seed development programme largely focuses on developing HYV’s only. Not much has been done on the varietal improvement of traditional varieties. As a consequence, HYV are taking over traditional varieties, resulting in the loss of biogenetic wealth of traditional indigenous varieties. Currently crucial aspect is biodiversity conservation, its enhancement and utilization such that pureline breeds are conserved without genetic mixing.
The progression of HYV from the laboratory to the market involves many stages, as mentioned above. Instead of going through a cycle of producing foundation seeds, to getting the seeds tested and certified in some far off place, and then selling them back again to the same locale, strategies should be formulated to produce, test & certify within the same area. Moreover quality seeds thus produced should be such that they are widely grown and are not technologically intensive, so that the benefits of quality seeds easily permeate the locality.
Note: The term ‘hybrid’ refers to any cross made from traditional plant breeding techniques. Varieties based on such crosses produce fertile seeds and are homozygous-genetically quite uniform. Hybrid varieties refer to somewhat different phenomena by which the first generation offspring from inbred lines can be made genetically uniform. These offspring display heterosis effect that results in increased yield. The seeds produced by the offspring however may exhibit high rates of sterility and heterozygosity making it impractical for farmers to save and replant seeds.
References
- Agricultural statistics at a glance 2007. Directorate of Economics & Statistics. Department of agriculture & Cooperation. Ministry of Agriculture. Govt. of India.
- Economic Survey 2007. Website: http:/indiabudget.nic.in.
- ICAR Annual Reports. Website: www.icar.org.in/
- World Bank. 2008. The World Development Report, Agriculture for Development. 365 pp, ISBN-13:978-0-8213-807-7 World Bank, Washington DC. USA.
- Rai, M. (1999) Rice germplasm evaluation and enhancement in india:issues, status, options, and future plan of action. Proceedings of the International symposium on rice germplasm evaluation and enhancement. Special Report 195.University of Arkansas.
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