CAG raps Odisha goverment for poor seed replacement rate

BHUBANESWAR: The State is way behind the national average in seed replacement rate (SRR) as Odisha Government has failed to formulate a comprehensive seeds policy.In August 2015, the Agriculture and Farmers’ Empowerment department had proposed to formulate the policy which included recommendations on research and development, production, distribution and marketing of seeds.

In absence of any policy, the seeds production and distribution activities were carried out based on executive instructions and guidelines issued from time to time in an adhoc manner.Though the draft agriculture policy proposed to enhance the seed replacement rate to 33 per cent (pc), the SRR in case of four major seeds such as paddy, groundnut, moong and biri (black gram) was below the normative level (33 pc) as well as the national average during 2013-18 except in case of paddy during 2015-16.

In 2017-18, the SRR for paddy was 21.54 pc, 6.21 pc for groundnut, 12.18 pc for moong and 6.22 pc for black gram. However, the national averages for the four seeds were above the ideal rate of 33 pc.Pulling up the Odisha State Seeds Corporation (OSSC) for decline in the SRR, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) in its performance audit report for the year ending March 2018 said the corporation carried out seeds production as per its annual action plan without considering the Seed Rolling Plan (SRP).

The Ministry of Agriculture had approved a SRP for Odisha for the period 2013-17. The SRP was to be prepared considering the minimum SRR or rate already achieved whichever is higher.Though the Government directed all seeds producing agencies including OSSC to carry out production as per the SRP, the corporation issued its production programme as per the annual plan which was lower than what was envisaged in the SRP during 2013-14 and 2016-18 and failed to achieve its own target, the report said.

Shortfall in production and distribution of certified seeds by OSSC has affected the SRR of the State. In case of paddy, though the SRR increased to 36.01 pc in 2015-16, it again decreased below the normative level during 2016-18. The State-run corporation produced 20.35 lakh quintal of seeds during 2013-18 against its own target of 35.80 lakh, the report added.