Vegetable seed production in India has grown significantly over the past few decades. India is now the second largest producer of vegetables globally. The use of hybrid seeds has increased yields by 2-3 times compared to traditional saved seeds. However, vegetable seed production faces challenges such as high costs, perishability of seeds, and climate and pest issues. Strengthening public sector research and reducing import/export restrictions can help boost the vegetable seed industry in India.

1. Scope of vegetable seed production in India
OUR SEED, OUR FUTURE
SEED OF HOPE

2.  The key component among all inputs
 Quality of seed accounts for 20-25% of
productivity (State of Indian Agriculture
2012-13)

4. • Need for a good viable seed for prosperity of
human race is mentioned in Rigveda
• “Subeejam Sukshetre Jayate Sampadyate”
(Poonia, 2013) -manu smriti
• Own saved seed, No organized seed
production
Ancient INDIA

5. No organized seed production
Very few seed companies– Suttons and
Sons in Kolkata
Royal commission of Agriculture (1925)
recommended spread of improved
varieties and seed distribution

6. National Seed Corporation (NSC) in
1963
•Organized fashion to maintain quality
•Multiplication of seed of pre released
varieties and production of foundation
seed of varieties
The Seeds Act, 1963 (1966)
•Tagging either by compulsory labeling or
voluntary certification
•Seed quality control through independent
State Seed Certification Agencies under
the control of state departments of
agriculture

7. National Seeds Project
•World Bank sponsored
•Three phases-Phase I (1975), Phase II (1981) and Phase
III (1988)
•15 State Seed Corporations, State Seed Certification
Agencies, State Seed Testing Laboratories (Verma,
2008)
New Seeds Policy, 1988
•“High Priority Industries” (Mazumdar,2012)
•Liberalizing the seed trade (Gadwal, 2003) through
open general license and removed tariff barriers
(Mazumdar,2012)
•Resulted in import of hybrid seeds in cabbage,
cauliflower, chillies, etc. besides large quantities of
seeds of carrot and beetroot by private seed companies

8. PPV &
FRA, 2001
•Farmer’s rights- Right to save, use exchange,
share and sell farm produce of protected
variety except sale of branded seed
•Protection against the unscrupulous seed
companies through compensation (Prasad et
al. 2009)
The
Seeds
Bill, 2004
•Regulation of seed quality
•Curb sale of spurious and poor quality seeds
(State of Indian Agriculture, 2013)
ICAR
SPONSERE
D
PROJECTS
•AICRIP on seed production in 1979 with 14
centers
•AICRIP on production of breeder seed in
vegetable crops is started under National
Seed Project in 1994 (Poonia, 2013)

9. Sixth position in world with revenue of INR 110.04 billion in
2013
Indian seed market has grown at 12% annual rate where the
annual growth rate of global seed market is 5% (Verma, 2008)
Over last seven years, has grown at 18.8%
Vegetable seeds account for 20% of the total seeds produced
in the country in 2013 (KEN research)

10. 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
20
80
NON VEGETABLE SEEDSVEGETABLE SEEDS

11. Indian vegetable seed market is growing at a
rate of 10-15% a year
There has been an increase of 194% in Indian
vegetable hybrid seed market during 1998-2008
The vegetable seed business in India, at present,
amounts for 9000 million INR accounting for
18% value wise share of different crops in
Indian seed business (Mazumdar,2012)

12. • Liberalization of seed trade
• Incapability to generate huge funds on
research and development (R&D)
• Lack of proper advertisement and market for
public sector bred varieties and hybrids
• The gargantuan seed manufacturers with
multinational base can assemble germplasm
from any part of the world which cannot be
done by the public sector institutions in easy
way
• Mega seed giants employ paramount
technical personnel with opulence and

14.  The second largest producer of vegetables (17.3
t/ha) after China (22.5 t/ha) (Kumar et al. 2011)
 SRR are higher for vegetable crops when
compared to cereals-paddy-25.1%, wheat-18%
(Nandi et al. 2013)
Vegetables 1991-92 2010-11
Area 5.59 mha 8.49 mha
Production 58.5 mt 146.5 mt
2.5 times

15. Crop SRR (%) Yield (kg/ha)
Own saved
seed
Replaced
seed
Cabbage 100 -- 370.26
Cauliflower 86.4 190.23 230.47
Chillies 83.7 68.21 85.73
Okra 92.4 140.55 230.87
Tomato 99.3 344.50 464.97
Yields of quality seeds are higher than farmer own saved seeds
Comparison of yields through own saved seeds
and replaced quality seeds in various vegetable
crops
(Nandi et al. 2013)

16. Crop Quantity (t) Value (m INR)
Pea 105 5.2
Radish 252.63 47.4
Tomato 6.02 42.5
Cabbage 104.97 334.4
Cauliflower 37.62 226.5
Other vegetable
seeds
1019.14 847.1
Total 1525.38 1503.1
India’s import of vegetable seeds in
2007-08
(Vanitha et al. 2013)

17. Vegetables Suitable region for seed
production
Warm season vegetables Indian plains and Deccan
Plateau
Solanaceous vegetables,
Cucurbits and Legumes
Throughout the year under
South Indian conditions
Winter vegetables
(Cabbage, Cauliflower,
Broccoli, Beetroot,
European Carrot and
Radish)
Hill stations of Himalayan
range
Winter vegetables (Onion,
Asiatic Carrot, Asiatic
Radish and Tropical
During winter season in
North Indian Plains
(Sharma, 2011)

18. Requiremen
t of the
vegetable
seed
2001-02 2005
Open
pollinated
varieties
30550 t 48000 t
Hybrid
vegetable
seed
346.2 t 994 t
After 2007,
requirement of
hybrid seeds
became greater
than OPVs

21. Income generation
1. Highly remunerative business
2. Hybrids fetch more price than OPVs
as the cost of hybrid seed production
is more due to the involvement of
more labour
3. Hybrid seed production of sweet
pepper is highly remunerative
generating an income of 136000 INR
per 0.75 acre followed by hot pepper
generating an income of 41500 INR per
0.25 acre (Sharma, 2011).

22. Particular
Tomato Okra
Quantity Value (INR) Quantity
Value
(INR)
Total cost
49775 38548
Yield
0.493 q 138118 5.66 q 77995
Benefit:
Cost 2.77:1 2.02:1
Net income
88343 39447
Sudha et al. 2006

23. Crop Average man-days per
acre
Tomato 480
Chilli 1800
Okra 180
Brinjal 600
Cucurbits 150 to 450
(Hazra et al. 2005)

25.  Terminator and traitor seeds - fortunately
banned
 Non availability in time-especially GM seeds
 unscrupulous companies are selling spurious
seeds
 Truthfully labeled seed
 Liberalization of seed trade Boon or
Bust?

26.  High Cost and Vague Market Demand
 Perishable Nature of Seed
1. Seed is a living entity and a biological
product
2. subjected to death depending upon its genetic
potentiality to remain viable and storage
conditions (Poonia, 2013; Sharma, 2011)
3. Unlike cereals, vegetable seeds are not the
edible portions

27.  Problems linked with contract farming
 Farmers may not be having scientific and technical
knowledge on floral biology pollination
mechanism, isolation distance, rouging etc
 Over large areas-effect uniformity & quality
 Climate, Pest and Disease related problems
 Stringent seed policies and laws
• Varietal notification and registration are
compulsory and is time taking in bureaucratic
system
• Seed certification is time consuming task
• Export and Import regulations are inconsistent and
politically motivated (Verma, 2008)

28.  Vegetable seed business will ever have huge
scope to success and will play an important
role in economy in countries like India
 Making available quality seeds to the farmers
in time and in sufficient quantity at
reasonable prices
 Government has to reduce precincts on
import and export of quality seeds and
planting materials

29.  Policy making and implementations
shall be free from political motivations
 Strengthening of public sector in R&D
is needed to compete with private seed
companies so as to provide good
quality seeds to the farmers at cheaper
rates
 Win-Win-Win approach among Public,
Private sectors and Farmers

30. SAVE SEEDS, SAVE FARMERS