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.



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



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



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



be in place if thevast potential of the seeds, is to beunfolded.Seedsform the

fundamental andcrucial input for

sustained growth



in farmproduction,oftenstimulating theuse of newmethods,

machinery andyield-enhancing

agro-inputs. The



roleof the seedsector is not onlyto ensureadequacy in seedquality but also

to ensurevarietaldiversity.

Today, the Indian



seed programmeboasts one of thebiggest seedmarkets in theworld,with

annual sales ataround US $920

million. Of this,



domestic offtakeaccounts for US$900million andsales in the globalmarket account

for the remainingUS $20

million.The New



Policy on SeedDevelopment(NPSD),established in1988 with the

objectiveof augmenting

productivity and



output quality,stimulated majorgrowth in theindustry asitattracted a lot of

investment inseed business

from major



domestic seedcompanies.Given thegrowthof the seed sectorin recent years,

India has thepotential to

become the



foremost playerinthe seed exportbusiness in thedeveloping worldwith prospective

markets in Asia,Africa andSouth

America.



Public Sector -Contributions andStrengths

Like manyagriculturally

developed Asiannations, India has

sizeable public



and privatesectorseed businesses.Giant publicsector playersinclude the

National SeedsCorporation(NS

C), the State



FarmsCorporation of India (SFCI) andthe thirteen StateSeed

Corporations(SSCs). NSC was the

first public sector



organization,established in1963, andremainedvirtuallythe only

agency for seedproduction for

around 13 years.



Its role extendedtoseveraldevelopmental programmesincluding

training, qualitycontrol and

extension



activities inseeds.This wasfollowed by thesetting up of theSSCs under two

consecutive planperiods,

supported by the



World Bank, andthese largelyadopted the roleof the NSC in theIndian States.

Thesecorporations engage

principally in



production andmarketing of seeds of highyielding andhybridvarieties

developed by thepublic sector. The

initial impetus to



the vegetablevarietydevelopmentwasfrom publicinstitutes. Several

high yieldingvarieties in many

crops were



releasedincludingsomewith diseaseresistances.These institutions

continue todevelop and

release new



varietiesandhybrids. Popularvarieties releasedby the Institutesare produced and

marketed bymanysmall and

medium sized



companies.These includeArka Anamika inokra, ArkaManik in

Documents

Vegetable Seed Industry