Seed Replacement Ratio: The seed industry in India has brought many revolutions and transformations in Indian agriculture. The famed’ Green Revolution’ that took India’s agriculture to new heights was also based upon the seeds of High yielding varieties of wheat that produced good yields. Similarly, ‘BT cotton’ transformed India’s cotton economics.
The growth of the seed industry has been commensurate with that of Indian agriculture. Today, the Indian seed industry is the fifth largest seed market in the world, accounting for 4.4% of the global seed market after the U.S. (27%), China (20%), France (8%) and Brazil (6%). The growth in the Indian seed market is a result of some progressive policies taken by the government over the years. Seed Development, 1988 and National Seed Policy, 2002 are some of the key policy initiatives that helped in strengthening the Indian seed industry in the areas of Research and Development (R&D), product development, supply chain management and quality assurance.

In our article on “Seeds – for a resilient and sustainable growth in Agriculture sector’ , we highlighted that despite the several initiatives taken by the Indian Seeds Programme to promote the use of certified seeds in the country, the Seed Replacement Ratio (SRR) – a measure to assess the use of certified or good quality seeds continues to be below the optimum level.

Apart from this, it is also important to note that the inter-state variation in seed-replacement ratio is significantly high across crops. The gap in seed-replacement ratio between the highest to lowest ranges from 95-100 times in case of groundnut and green gram, 50 times in case of cotton, 20 to 28 times in case of maize, black gram and red gram. Additionally, in case of paddy -the seed-replacement ratio of Andhra Pradesh which is the highest in the country is almost 2X of the national average, while Uttarakhand which records the lowest is 4X lower than national average.

Seed, being the principal input in determining productivity, seed replacement should be given utmost priority. Amelioration of skewed SRR, i.e. the percentage of area sown out of total cropped area by using certified/quality seeds other than farm saved seed is the major challenge and it needs to be addressed at a farm level.
Further, the Indian seed industry also needs to align with the changing food consumption scenario of the country.

In the last 15 years (i.e., 2010-2015), there has been a gradual shift from cereals and pulses consumption to fruits and vegetables consumption. The future seed market of the country is expected to witness more adoption of hybrid seeds.
Therefore, active participation of both public and private sectors will play a vital role in laying a strong foundation of the industry. At present only government agencies and few small regional players are involved in the multiplication and distribution of traditional and improved varieties of crops. Hybrid seeds, on the other hand, now occupy the highest share in terms of total market value. Syngenta, Dupont, Mahyco, J K seeds, Bioseed, Rasi and Bayer are some of the players in this business. Mahindra’s Agri Seeds business has also played a significant role in establishing R& D programs in key field crops, such as, Rice, Corn, and Pearl Millet.

In vegetables, the focus is on Hot Pepper, Tomato, Okra, and Watermelon. The most controversial category of seeds is the one which are genetically modified and more commonly referred to as GM seeds. This category of seeds was seen capturing a good share of markets with heavy investments in R&D. Monsanto, Dupont, Syngenta, Rasi and Pioneer are some of the companies working on this line of seeds.

Thus, while a lot of work has been done to promote the seed industry, it still requires efforts at a much more granular level, with a thorough understanding of localised needs, i.e., consumption pattern, geographical feasibility of production etc. Most importantly, active participation of the private and public sector in every stage of development, i.e., R&D, marketing and distribution is crucial for a sustainable growth in the seed industry.