1. Participatory Seed Production of Pulses
WELCOME
Dr. SITA RAM KUMHAR
Professor (PBG) & Zonal Director Research
Agricultural Research Station, Mandor, Jodhpur
Agriulture university jodhpur
Presented during Group meeting organized by ICAR-ATARI, Jodhpur for July

2. Introduction
As per 4th Advance Estimates, the foodgrain production during is as under:
  Foodgrains  –   million tonnes
   Pulses  –  23.31 million tonnes
   Gram – 9.33 million tonnes
   Tur  –  4.78 million tonnes
   Urd bean –  2.80 million tonnes
   Oilseeds  –  32.10 million tonnes
Estimates of production of major crops for have been released by the Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare on 16th August, 2017.
The country has advanced from a situation of food scarcity and imports to that of food security and exportable surpluses.
The Green Revolution of India has been universally acclaimed as a successful enterprise of the farmers, the Scientists and the Government.

3. Introduction
The land mark achievements in agriculture in the 60s and 70s were the result of a combination of inputs like
introduction of high yielding varieties and its seed,
increased fertilizer use,
expansion of irrigation facilities,
massive extension efforts,
improved farm practices and,
above all, ingenuity and industry of the Indian farmers.
However, the growth of agriculture sector has not kept pace with the growth of the population and has stagnated.

4. Introduction
The unsatisfactory growth of agriculture, apart from serious implications for food security of the country, has been adversely impacting the growth rate of country’s economy.
The imperative of National food security, nutritional security and economic development demand a very focused and determined approach to raise productivity and production in agriculture.
In view of the fact, that the area under cultivation is unlikely to increase significantly, thrust have to be on raising productivity per unit of cultivated land.

5. About Pulses
India is the largest producer (18.09 million tonnes in ) and consumer of pulses in the world has low average annual productivity growth rate for most of the pulses.
Grain legumes are an important source of dietary protein for many people in developing world with a protein content meanly twice as high as that in cereals.
They are the cheap source of quality protein that complements the protein in cereals and thus enhances the nutritional value of cereal dominated diets. 

6. Pulses Statistics
In India, pulses were grown on million ha area producing million tonnes of the grain during
Usually these crops are grown as rainfed on marginal soils. Since, less than 25% area is irrigated, the productivity of pulses remain less than 785 kg per ha at national level.
The major producers of pulses in the country are Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh followed by Karnataka which together share about 77% of total pulse production while remaining 23% is contributed by Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Orissa and Jharkhand.

7. Pulses Diversity in India
India grows such a variety of grain legumes which none of the countries in the world grows. 
There are nine major grain legumes (chickpea, pigeonpea, urdbean, mungbean, horse gram, moth bean, lathyrus, lentil and peas) which together account for more than 95% of the total area under pulses. 
There are 11 minor grain legumes viz. cowpea, broad bean, dry bean, rice bean, winged bean, adzuki bean, hyacinth bean, lima bean, jack bean, zombie pea and pillipesera, which are grown sporadically in isolated pockets.

8. All India Area, Production and Productivity of Pulses
Crop/ Year *
Area
Production
Productivity
Arhar
53.38
48.73
913
44.29
40.24
908
Urd
34.78
21.76
626
41.78
26.00
622
Mungbean
33.70
16.43
487
32.39
14.17
437
Other kharif pulses
21.77
8.9
410
18.80
7.92
421
All Kharif Pulses
143.63
95.85
667
137.26
88.33
643
Chickpea
96.26
93.78
974
104.25
110.96
1064
Urd bean
10.0
6.56
656
8.48
6.29
742
Mung bean
9.57
5.22
545
5.78
3.19
552
Other Rabi Pulses
35.00
29.91
854
32.54
30.71
944
All Rabi Pulses
150.83
135.47
898
151.05
151.15
1001
Total Pulses
294.46
231.31
785
288.31
239.48
831
Area (lakh ha.), Production (lakh tones) and Productivity (kg/ha) of Pulses
*IInd Advance estimate

9. State wise Production of Pulses
State/ Year *
Mung bean
M.P.
62.91
77.93
2.96
1.37
Maharastra
37.68
33.03
2.60
1.64
Rajasthan
31.81
31.09
8.10
7.77
U.P.
21.84
19.85
0.52
Karnataka
17.38
18.45
1.16
0.85
Andhra Pradesh
11.44
9.31
0.66
0.91
Jharkhand
8.07
7.85 -
Chhattisgarh
7.59
5.33
Tamil Nadu
4.27
5.45
0.56
1.07
Others
22.27
20.49
5.09
3.23
Total Production
231.31
239.48
21.65
17.36
Production (in lakh tones)
*IInd Advance estimate

10. Seed
Seed is alchemy of agriculture. Quality seed is pivotal for yield enhancement, production and self sufficiency needs of the country.
From a meager 50.5 million tonnes during to million tonnes of food grain production during , voyage is quite remarkable and flaunts the might of Indian agriculture.
It is made possible due to use of quality seed of improved varieties, advanced package of practices, adroitness and diligence of Indian farmers.
For agrarian based country like India, Seed security is having a strong positive correlation to food security, which is quite clearly evident from increment in food grain production vis-à-vis growth in quality seed production.

11. Seed Production
Seed is elixir of agriculture having the potential to transmute the face of Indian agricultural scenario and for transgression of yield barriers.
Seed is prime input encompassing the capacity to ensure food security i.e. seed security can play a crucial role in ensuring food security.
A robust seed system guarantees food security needs of the country and acts as driver of growth in agriculture.
Making the resource poor farmers enable with quality seed and its wholesome production technology is a challenge that needs to be tackled upon.
Role of quality seed is documented and acknowledged across farming systems and ICAR duly acknowledged this fact by the launch of mile stone projects viz. AICRP- NSP (Crops) and other Seed project.

12. Status of Seed Production by different agencies
Agencies/Organization
% share of total quantity of seed produced
Kind of Seed produced
Public Institutions
20-22
Self / Open-Pollinated Crops
Private seed companies
5-8
Mainly Hybrid seed
Farmer Saved seed
70-75
Self / Open Pollinated Crops

13. Seed Production
Despite a huge institutional framework for seed production both in the public and private sector,
availability of good quality seeds continues to be a problem for the farmers.
As a result, they prefer to rely on farm saved seeds; seed replacement rate continues to remain in the range of 2-10 per cent in certain states for certain crops, which is much below the desired level of 20 per cent for most crops.,
As is well known, seed replacement rate has a strong positive correlation with the productivity and production of crops.
There is a need to rejuvenate the seeds sector through revamping the public sector seed companies, including the State Seed Corporations.

14. All India Seed Replacement Rate of Pulses
State/ Crop
Urd bean
Mung bean
Arhar
M.P. 10 21 17
Maharastra 51 35 31
Rajasthan 7 18 22
U.P. - 25
Karnataka 36 13
Andhra Pradesh 59 78
Gujarat 39
Jharkhand 24
Chhattishgarh 8 4
Tamil Nadu 47 95
All India 34 30
SRR ( )
Seed requirement/ area requirement (25%, 35% & 100% for self-pollinated, cross pollinated and 100 hybrids, respectively).

15. Seed Replacement Rate (%), Seed distribution (q)
and area (lakh ha) of Pulses in Rajasthan
Crop
SRR/ Seed distribu.Area
Average
Mung bean
SRR
18.35
24.80
23.79
22.05
20.35
 21.87
Seed distri.
46697
39183
48526
39430
55565
 45880
Area
12.72
7.90
10.20
8.94
13.65
 10.68
Urd bean
6.94
10.33
11.90
10.87
12.96
 10.60
3541
45.05
4667
4398
7733
 4077
2.55
2.18
1.96
2.02
2.98
 2.34
Moth bean
5.73
14.07
9.43
7.95
6.55
 8.75
11338
18229
13129
10365
10685
 12749
13.18
8.64
9.28
8.69
 10.13
Gram
12.53
13.75
11.79
18.24
17.84
 14.83
134809
129201
170104
171839
126048
 146400
14.34
19.23
12.56
9.42
 13.62
Seed requirement/ area requirement (25%, 35% & 100% for self-pollinated, cross pollinated and 100 hybrids, respectively).

16. Needs Ensure supply of quality seeds to the farmers.
Develop and enforce seed quality standards.
Maintaining sustainability with profitability to the farmers by development of suitable infrastructure for Seed Quality Control and Seeds Development.

17. National Seed Policy 2002
The National Seeds Policy 2002, clearly emphasizes that “It has become evident that in order to achieve the food production targets of the future, a major effort will be required to enhance the seed replacement rates of various crops. This would require a major increase in the production of quality seeds……..” According to the National seeds Policy 2002, the thrust areas have to be –
i) Varietal Development.
ii) Seed Production.
iii) Seed Replacement Rate Enhancement.
iv) Primary responsibility for production of breeder seed to be that of the ICAR/State Agriculture Universities.
v) An effective seed production programme.
vi) Popularisation of new varieties.
vii) Availability of newly developed varieties to farmers with minimum time gap.
viii) Provision of incentives to domestic seed industry to enable it to produce seeds of high yielding varieties and hybrid seeds at a faster pace to meet the challenges of domestic requirements.

18. Strategies Advanced preparation of seed rolling plan
Ensure availability of
- Quality seed for each season
- Formulate programme of identifying genuine growers
- Training farmers and registered growers in each district of the state for seed production
Maintenance of seed purity and quality through regular monitoring and evaluation.
Seed bank to be set up in cluster villages.

19. Active role State seed certification agency in the state
Contd....
Active role State seed certification agency in the state
Construction of more number of seed go-downs under seed village programme
State seed farm in different agro-climatic zone of the state be established
Seed testing laboratory to be set up in each district of the state

20. Seed Rolling Plan
States long term seed plan based on crop area, seed rate/ha. total seed required, targeted SRR seed required for normal conditions and seed required for contingency situations worked out.
Out of total quantity of seed required variety wise quantity of seed required for individual crops be worked out.
The required foundation and breeder seed to be worked backward three years in advance.
States should focus on crops, in which production will be impacted during the year due to Natural calamity as demand for seed of such crop in the succeeding year could be high.

21. Seed requirement by SRR in Rajasthan
Crop
Area (lakh ha)
( )
Seed rate (kg/ha)
Seed requirement
(lakh q)
Seed Multiplication ratio (SMR)
Seed requirement (lakh q) as per SRR
25% SRR
35% SRR
Mung bean
21.20 15
3.18 40
0.79
1.11
Moth bean
13.88 12
1.66
0.42
0.58
Urd
4.77
0.71
0.18
0.25
Arhar
17.86 20
0.036
100
0.009
0.013
Gram
15.48 75
11.61 10
2.90
4.01
Seed requirement/ area requirement (25%, 35% & 100% for self-pollinated, cross pollinated and 100 hybrids, respectively).

22. Constraints in Quality seed production of Pulses
Among major production constraints, availability of quality seed of improved varieties has been a major constraint in enhancing production and productivity of pulses in India. 
Despite a target of 10% of seed replacement rate we could not achieve even more than 7% at country level. 
This is primarily due to lack of organized seed production programme for pulses. Still we do not have a proper medium term (4-5 years) seed rolling plan for major pulses producing states.
The indent for breeder seed is quite low in many cases and that too is for old varieties. There is poor conversion of breeder seed to foundation and certified seed. Even true picture of conversion of breeder seed to foundation and certified seed is not available for most the states. 
To insure timely availability of quality seed, capabilities of seed production must be enhanced with introduction of contractual obligation component by involving seed societies, farmers, private sectors and NGO’s besides SAU’s, IIPR and  State Seed Corporations.
Participation of growers in seed production should be encouraged by way of simplifying the registration and seed certification procedures.

23. Conclusion
Seed is the decisive input for sustained agriculture production and is paramount for
realizing the potential of all other inputs without which the investment on inputs such as fertilizer, water, and pesticides will not pay desired dividends to the farmers.
Use of quality seeds alone could increase productivity by 15-20% indicate the critical role of seed in agriculture.
As Indian economy is basically agrarian due to sheer number of people directly or indirectly dependent on agriculture, the role of seed in India’s context is far greater significant.
Whatever the share of Indian seed market, is from organized sector that accounts for only 30-35%, which opens a window for enormous possibilities.

24. “Live Healthy and Happy”
“Health is Wealth”
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