As intense lobbying by seed companies to get the germination percentage of soyabean seed reduced to 60% from 80% succeeded, farmers planning to grow the crop this vaanakalam are being forced to shell out ₹45 crore more on just the seed to cultivate in a little over 4.68 lakh acres.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare had issued orders on Friday night reducing the germination percentage of soyabean seed being sold by private firms to 60% from a minimum of 80% on the grounds that production of seed and its quality were affected due to untimely rains in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh last year.
With reduced germination percentage being official now, the requirement of seed is likely go up by a whopping 50%. According to officials of the Agriculture Department, the seed required for cultivating soyabean, one of the major vaanakalam commercial crops, in over 4.68 lakh acres, as part of the regulated farming, would be about 1,40,500 quintals at 30 kg per acre.
However, this would increase seed requirement to nearly 2,10,700 quintals with the Agriculture department advising farmers to sow about 45 kg seed per acre now.
Regulated farming
According to regulated farming norm, soyabean crop is supposed to be cultivated in about one lakh acres each in Nizamabad, Kamareddy, Nirmal and Adilabad districts and the remaining extent in another eight districts.
Sources in the department said with regular germination percentage of 80%, the farming community would have spent over ₹55.41 crore on subsidised seed supplied at ₹3,945 per quintal after deducting the subsidy component of ₹2,701 per quintal.
However, the Telangana State Seed Development Corporation could procure only up to 90,000 quintals of seed for the purpose due to non-availability following damage in producing states — Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.
The officials said that the farming community was forced to depend on private seed to the extent of about 1.21 lakh quintals with a price of at least ₹7,500 per quintal. As a result, farmers have been left with no choice but to depend on private seed and bear additional cost on the key input.