Addressing a National Symposium on Seeds in New Delhi on Thursday, Union Minister Amit Shah underscored the importance of conservation of innumerable numbers of traditional seeds which have kept India healthy through ages.
Unveiling the Logo, Website and Brochure of newly formed Bhartiya Beej Sahkari Samiti Limited (BBSSL), Shah said today is very important from the point of view of new beginnings in the cooperative movement, farmers’ welfare and food production in the country. He said that BBSSL will have a huge contribution in making India self-reliant in the field of seed conservation, promotion and research in the coming days.
Several co-operators and co-ops connected with production of seeds were present on this occasion in Vigyan Bhawan. While the govt side included MoS BL Verma, Co-op Secretary Gyanesh Kumar and Agriculture Secretary Manoj Ahuja, the Co-op sector had strong contingent which included Yogendra Kumar, Chairman of BBSSL, IFFCO MD Dr U S Awasthi, Chairman of Kribhco, Nafed and NDDB, all promoters of the new body were present on the occasion. GCMMF MD, Kribhco MD, IFFCO’s Joint MD, among others were present on the occasion. BBSSL Chairman Yogendra Kumar welcomed the guests and thanked Shah profusely for finding time to attend the event.
In his address, Shah said that scientifically designed seeds are not available to farmers and it is our responsibility to supply the same to them. This will also be done by this cooperative society, he declared. Shah said that India is one of the few countries in the world where agriculture was systematically introduced. Thus, the traditional Indian seeds have to be conserved and passed on to the coming generations, so that production of healthy grains, fruits and vegetables continues and this work will be done by BBSSL.
He said that the seeds produced here are mainly prepared by R&D following patterns of foreign countries but if our agricultural scientists get a good platform then they can make maximum production yielding seeds in the world. The R&D for this objective will be done by BBSSL.
Shah said that there is a huge market for export of seeds in the world and India’s share in it is less than one percent, a time-bound target should be set for a vast and agriculture-oriented country like India to gain a larger share in the global seed market. He added that the Modi government has established Bharatiya Beej Sahkari Samiti Limited with these five objectives and in a few years this society will get recognition across the world and will make immense contributions in providing certified seeds to the farmers of the country.
After the Union Cabinet approval for the formation of Indian Seed Cooperative Society Limited, the training
program has been completed in a very short span of time. He added that BBSSL will also connect Primary Agricultural Credit Society (PACS) with seed production like all other types of cooperative societies including agriculture, horticulture, dairy, fisheries.
Through PACS, every farmer will be able to produce seeds in his field, the seeds will also be certified and after branding, BBSSL will contribute in delivering these seeds not only to the entire country but also to the whole world. He said that the entire profit of this seed cooperative society will go directly into the bank accounts of the seed producing farmers and this is the basic mantra of the cooperative.
“Today, the requirement of seeds in India itself is about 465 lakh quintals, out of which 165 lakh quintals are produced through the government system and the production through cooperatives is less than 1 percent, we have to change this ratio”, stated Shah.
Amit Shah said that the farmers who will come together in seed production through cooperatives will directly get the profit from the seeds. He said that the share of India’s domestic seed market in the global market is only 4.5 percent, it needs to be increased and a lot of work will have to be done for this. Shri Shah said that we will have to decide the goals for the next 5 years for BBSSL.
The Minister said that ICAR, 3 Central Agricultural Universities, 48 State Agricultural Universities, more than 726 Agricultural Science Centres and 72 government agencies of the Centre and States are connected to the Seed Network. We have no competition with anyone, rather our aim is to ensure that profits should reach the farmers, production of certified seeds increase and India’s share in seed exports also increase. He said that by taking all these institutions together, we will take forward the work of this seed cooperative and move towards achieving our targeted seed replacement rate.
Union Minister of Cooperation said when IFFCO, KRIBHCO, NAFED, NDDB and NCDC will move on a single road map, the speed naturally increases and multi state cooperatives, state level cooperative institutions, district level cooperative institutions and PACS will also be able to join them.
Shah said that BBSSL will ensure production, testing, certification, purchase, processing, storage, branding, labelling, packaging and export through the cooperative network. He added that this entire system will be world class and modern as our cooperatives such as IFFCO, Kribhco and Amul have already demonstrated it at the global level.
The biggest beneficiaries of this will be small farmers as they could now produce seeds by associating with PACS which was not possible in the past. Shah said BBSSL will fulfil many objectives.
The Union Minister of Cooperation said that one of our biggest objectives is to conserve traditional seeds, because we have millions of varieties of seeds, but even the government departments do not have complete information about them.
Shah said that due to the initiative of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, the huge market of Shree Anna (millets) has emerged in the world today and very few countries other than India have its seeds. If our seed cooperative pays attention to this then we can have a monopoly on Ragi, Bajra, Jowar and many other millets.
