Crop Varieties Notification and Seed Marketing to Farmers: What Important Information Lacking on Seed Bags- A Case Study

Case Report

Crop Varieties Notification and Seed Marketing to Farmers: What Important Information Lacking on Seed Bags- A Case Study

S.G. Borkar

Laboratory and Research Center, Endeavour Scientific Agriculture, 301, Prestige Point building, In front of Nashik Road police station, Nashik-422101, India.

*Corresponding Author: S.G. Borkar,Laboratory and Research Center, Endeavour Scientific Agriculture, 301, Prestige Point building, In front of Nashik Road police station, Nashik-422101, India.

Citation: S.G. Borkar. (2025). Crop varieties notification and seed marketing to farmers: What Important Information lacking on seed bags- A case study. International Journal of Nutrition Research and Health, BioRes Scientia Publishers. 4(1):1-3. DOI: 10.59657/2871-6021.brs.25.037

Copyright: © 2025 S.G. Borkar, this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Received: December 12, 2024 | Accepted: January 30, 2025 | Published: February 10, 2025

Abstract

Field crops and their seeds are an important source of nutrients for human health, particularly for vegetarians. Crop varieties are bred by publicly funded institutions as well as private-sector seed companies. The concerned government agency notifies the crop varieties developed by public sector agricultural institutes /universities, and the seed is produced by the seed corporations at the national or state level to bring it to the seed market for the farmers through the agricultural services centers. Most of the crop varieties bred by private-sector seed companies do not follow the notification channel and are brought to the market directly. Certain information is printed on the seed bags/seed packets of these varieties while some important information is not made available for the farmers. In the present case study, the seed bags of important seed corporations/seed companies are assessed for the important missing information which seems to be the fundamental right of the farmers to know about it as he /she pays for the cost of the seed. The missing information on the seed bags/seed packets needs to be made available by enacting the seed laws by the concerned government. Why the missing information is necessary and affecting the agriculture is discussed in this paper. The points of concern are important not only in context to Indian farmers but also for the other nations too. Accurate information about the crop varietal seed on the seed bags can be useful for the farmers for their choice to select, and subsequently to obtain high-quality yield.

Keywords: crop varieties; seeds; notification; seed bags; printed information

Introduction

High-yielding crop varieties play an important role in national food production and food security as a source of nutrition for human health (Welch and Graham, 2004). These crop varieties are bred at agricultural universities of the state and in crop-specific research institutes of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, go through co-ordinated trials in different parts of the nation, and are released and notified by the national varietal release committee at the national level and the state varietal release committee at the state level each year. Before their release, these varieties pass through rigorous screening trials of specific traits, and yield trials so as to go into seed production and distribution chain. Besides these public institutions, several seed companies bred their crop varieties to release for state or national marketing. However, many private company’s varieties are not included in the state university trials to ascertain their claims for yield potential, specific traits, and resistance to pests and diseases and are not notified by the government. India, being an agriculture-driven country, has a vast seed market. The Indian seed sector is valued at USD 3.0 billion and is the 5th largest globally (as per NSAI estimates, 2023) which is controlled by 700+ seed companies of both private and public sectors. The public sector is represented by the National Seed Corporation (NSC) and the State Seed Corporation (SSCs) for the production, distribution, and sale of foundation or truthful seed to the farmers. For varietal seed sales, seed bags or seed packets are made available in the market for the farmers. On these seed bags, certain information is printed about the seed while some important information is not printed. The significance of the printed and unprinted information is studied in the present case study.

case study

The crop varietal seed bags of NSC, SSCs, and private seed companies available in the market for sale to the farmers were assessed for the printed information on these bags regarding the seeds. Not all the information about the crop variety and seed was mentioned on the seed bags/seed packets. The seed bags contained the information like name of the crop, name of variety, type of seed (Foundation/Truthful), purity of seed, and germination percentage only (fig.1) while lacking the most important one necessary to know by the farmers like the yield potential of the variety, year of the notification or release of the variety, special traits of the variety, disease/pest resistance, geographical area for cultivation. All these information points are important and of concern for the farmers.

Point of Concern for the farmers
Almost all the seed bags lack the following information which should be made mandatory by the law for the benefit of the farmers.
To mention the yield potential
Farmers intend to purchase the seeds of high-yielding crop varieties. However, on no seed bag, the yield potential of the variety is mentioned. It is the fundamental right of the farmer to know the yield potential of the variety for which he /she is paying the price.
To mention the year of Release/notification
Farmers wanted to purchase the seeds of recently released crop varieties. However, on no seed bag, the year of the notification/release of the variety is mentioned. Due to this, the farmer does not know how old the variety is for which he/she is paying the price.
To mention the name of the research institute that bred the variety
Most of the varieties bred by the public funded universities/institutes are sold by the private companies under their brand name and do not mention the name of the breeding institute and thus the farmers are not aware of actual breeding institution. The farmer has the right to know which institute bred the variety for which he/she is paying the price
To mention the crop variety website on seed bag to get additional information
For the crop variety release criteria, several parameters like special traits, disease/pest resistance, and special features of the variety are taken into consideration which are not known to farmers during the purchase of the seeds. The farmer has the right to know this as he/she is paying the price of the seed. Since the whole information is not possible to print on the seed bag, the website for the concerned variety should be mentioned on the seed bag. From this website, all the information can be acquired by the farmer for the concerned variety to decide whether to purchase it or not.
Many a time, the printed information on the seed bags like the purity of variety, and germination percentage does not match when the seed is sown in the field. Many varieties of private sectors succumb to pest and disease infection due to their susceptibility. Since such information is lacking on the seed bags, the farmers cannot opt for legal cases, as such claims are not mentioned on the seed bags, nor does the seed website with full varietal information exist at present for the farmers.
These are the most important points to safeguard the interest of the farmers during seed purchase for crop cultivation and should be made mandatory by the law to print this information on the seed bags/seed packets. These points of concern are important not only for Indian farmers but for other nations too.

References

Prabhakar Rao, M. (2023). Indian Seed Industry: Our preparedness for Amritkal. A report of National Seed Association of India. 1-14.
Publisher | Google Scholor
Welch, R.M, and R. D. Graham. (2004). Breeding for micronutrients in staple food crops from a human nutrition perspective. Journal of Experimental Botany. 55(396):353-364.
Publisher | Google Scholor

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