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Transcript of Vegetable Seed Industry
8/4/2019 Vegetable Seed Industry
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“VEGETABLE SEED INDUSTRY” – prospect and retrospect
INTRODUCTION
India has taken a bold step towards self sufficiency in food. However, self
sufficiency inthe true sense can be achieved only when each individual
in the country is assured of balanceddiet. This created an urgent needfor providing health security to our population by supplyingnutrition
through balanced diet. Indians are predominantly vegetarians and depend on
vegetablesfor bulk of their nutrients and minerals. More recently, the
role and usefulness of anti-oxidants present in vegetables in human
health has been demonstrated, adding value to this set of crops.Vegetables
cultivation has been known to stimulate development because it is labour
intensive,earns higher returns and involve extra skills. Development in
vegetable production will thereforecontribute not only to food and
nutritional security but also to poverty alleviation and
incomegeneration.Vegetables form the most important component of abalanced diet. India is the secondlargest producer of vegetables in
the world next only to China with an estimated production of about
105.0 million tonnes from an area of 6.0 million hectares at an average yield of
16 tonnes per hectare. India shares about 15 % of the world output of
vegetables from about 2.8 % of croppped area in the country.
However our per capita consumption is quite low. We can growvariety
of vegetables all the year round. Varied agro-climatic conditions in India make
it possibleto grow a wide variety of vegetable crops all the year round in one
part of the country or another.India can claim to grow the largest number of vegetable crops compared to any other country of the world and as many as
61 annual and 4 perennial vegetable crops are commercially cultivated.In the
post partition period a good infrastructure for vegetable research has been
created.At present vegetable research is being carried out at
fou r cent ral ins tit ute s, one Nati ona l Research Centre and 26 State
Agricultural Universities. The All India Coordinated
R e s e a r c h P r o g r a m m e o f t h e P r o j e c t D i r e c t o r e a t e o f
V e g e t a b l e R e s e a r c h p r o v i d e s f a c i l i t i e s f o r multidisciplinary,
area specific research on 23 vegetable crops and provides a nationalgrid for multilocation testing of technologies developed by various
institrutions. As a result research onvario u s aspect s of major
v egetable crops is being undertaken in order to improv e
existingvarieties and standardise production techniques.
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Vegetables are one of the cheapest source of nutrition and have important
role in fightinghu ng er in thi s ove r po pu la te d c ou nt ry. Mo re th an
50 indi geno us and exo tic vege tabl es of temperate and tropical
origin are native to India. The history of domestication, adaptation
andassimilation of such a large inventory of kinds and varieties point to their interesting link withthe waves after waves of early people, natives
and even those who migrated from central Asia tomake India their home.The
history of vegetables is also a welcome reminder that India received
so much morefrom th e wor ld t han i t co uld possi bly g ive b ack.
The exca vati ons of pre -his tor ic and prot o- historic sites provide
an authentic historical evidence of cultivation of vegetables such as
peas,melons and beans by the people of major civilisation that flourished
along Indus River Valley, asfar back as 2500 BC. The excavations at
Maheshwara and Navadatoli in Madhya Pradesh havefurther
established peoples’ knowledge of vegetables in vedic period (around 1200BC). Rigvedaand Atharva Veda, written during that period, cite medicinal
properties of onions and garlic. Jainworks, Budhist Sutras and Jatakas
exhorted usage of eggplant, cucumber, bottlegourd etc. for general well
being (Om Prakash, 1961).Indian National Science Academy (1980) has
brought out relevant botanical names of plants mentioned in medical
treatise like “Charaka Samhita” dated to be around 600 BC and in the“Sasruta Samhita” of 3
rd
to 4th
Century AD (Ray et al., 1980). Invaders, travellers and tradersall contributed
in introduction and spread of large number of vegetables used by
Indian sincelong time. Mughals, who invaded in 15
th
century and ruled until British took over and who weregourmets of good
food, included liberal doses of onion and garlic in the recipes for
flavouringtheir culinary delicacies, especially the meat dishes.
Colonising traders from Portugal, France, N et he rl an ds , De nm ar k and Bri ta in brought crops l ike cabbage and caul i f lower , hot
pepper, potato, etc. between 14
th
-17
th
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centuries (Seshadri and Chatterjee, 1966).Interestingly, the ubiquitous
Tomato which claims today the largest production came justabout 200 years
ago. Similarly cauliflower which was introduced by Europeans, not only
claimssubstantial area today but is one crop that has undergone major
genetic upheaval within a short period- thanks to voluntary selection by
local cultivators, mostly during early part of this centuryitself. The
evolution of a new and distinct class: Indian Cauliflower, is a
fascinating story of unlocking its hidden genetic potential by people who
did not know much about the intricacies of plant breeding (Swarup and
Chatterjee, 1973).The present prominent status of vegetables in overall
nutritional security of the countrycan, th us be att ri bu ted to
centuries of domesticat ion of indigenous genetic d iv ers i ty ,
l ar ge number of introductions from far off lands followed by theiradaptation, and more recently, value addition through genetic advances.
Today, India prides itself as the second largest producer of vegetables in the
world. It has maintained a measured growth in production for
meeting thegrowing demands at home and abroad. The projections of
requirements during the early decadesof next century, however, have to
factor not only total population growth (currently 1.8 percent) but also an
increasing proport ion of middle c lass with greater nutr i t ional
and appetis ing concerns. It is presumed that by 2025 India will have 1.4billion people, majority of whom willhave relatively higher living
standards. To meet this demand, the strategists have set a
growthtarget of 3 percent for the production and accordingly emphasised the
need for action to achieve productivity from ever diminishing land
resources. The solution lies clearly in the technologythat aims at
deriving best out of the configurations of genes and
environments.Dispensation of technology through genetic package i.e.
seed, is the most cost effect ivestrategy. Realising this, though belatedly,government of India liberalised vegetable seed imports by announcing the
New Seed Policy, 1988. Tariff barriers were removed through an instrumentof
duty free Open General Licence (OGL). Thanks to the policy, that the
farmers now have avery wide choice of planting materials available
anywhere in the world.A global trend of growers’ shift into the fast track of
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hybrid technology is clearly visiblei n Ind i a t oo. Th e h yb ri ds ar e bei ng
adopted f or their : (a) greater productiv i ty , (b)
ex te nd ed availability, (c) better adaptability, (d) selective capability.
For the seed industry, constantlygrappling with the onslaught of pirates,
hybrids provide built-in safeguards in pre-programmed parent lines.
Encouraged by these fundamentals, seed industry has started
investing heavily inhybrid research while remaining an active
partner in public institutional effort of an overallvariety
upgradation.There is a necessity for continuous flow of value added planting
materials employingconventional and/ or biotechnological systems in order
to match the ever changing needs of consumers and farms. An even greater
participation and investment in biotechnological andapplied research by both
public and private sector is paramount. And, a consistent support-3
institutional,legislative and
regulatory- has to
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be in place if thevast potential of the seeds, is to beunfolded.Seedsform the
fundamental andcrucial input for
sustained growth
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in farmproduction,oftenstimulating theuse of newmethods,
machinery andyield-enhancing
agro-inputs. The
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roleof the seedsector is not onlyto ensureadequacy in seedquality but also
to ensurevarietaldiversity.
Today, the Indian
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seed programmeboasts one of thebiggest seedmarkets in theworld,with
annual sales ataround US $920
million. Of this,
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domestic offtakeaccounts for US$900million andsales in the globalmarket account
for the remainingUS $20
million.The New
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Policy on SeedDevelopment(NPSD),established in1988 with the
objectiveof augmenting
productivity and
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output quality,stimulated majorgrowth in theindustry asitattracted a lot of
investment inseed business
from major
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domestic seedcompanies.Given thegrowthof the seed sectorin recent years,
India has thepotential to
become the
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foremost playerinthe seed exportbusiness in thedeveloping worldwith prospective
markets in Asia,Africa andSouth
America.
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Public Sector -Contributions andStrengths
Like manyagriculturally
developed Asiannations, India has
sizeable public
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and privatesectorseed businesses.Giant publicsector playersinclude the
National SeedsCorporation(NS
C), the State
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FarmsCorporation of India (SFCI) andthe thirteen StateSeed
Corporations(SSCs). NSC was the
first public sector
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organization,established in1963, andremainedvirtuallythe only
agency for seedproduction for
around 13 years.
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Its role extendedtoseveraldevelopmental programmesincluding
training, qualitycontrol and
extension
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activities inseeds.This wasfollowed by thesetting up of theSSCs under two
consecutive planperiods,
supported by the
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World Bank, andthese largelyadopted the roleof the NSC in theIndian States.
Thesecorporations engage
principally in
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production andmarketing of seeds of highyielding andhybridvarieties
developed by thepublic sector. The
initial impetus to
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the vegetablevarietydevelopmentwasfrom publicinstitutes. Several
high yieldingvarieties in many
crops were
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releasedincludingsomewith diseaseresistances.These institutions
continue todevelop and
release new
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varietiesandhybrids. Popularvarieties releasedby the Institutesare produced and
marketed bymanysmall and
medium sized
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companies.These includeArka Anamika inokra, ArkaManik in