Глобальный форум по продовольственной безопасности и питанию (Форум FSN)

Decentralized Seed Systems for Climate Resilient Agriculture in Rainfed Areas - Designing an Appropriate Seed System for Climate Resilience and Growth of Rainfed Agriculture.

Background

Rainfed farming systems in India are diverse, complex and risk prone. Diversity of crops and varietal choices, local adaptability to suit different soils, topography and rainfall patterns (early or late rains for instance), and buffer seeds to meet contingencies; need to be factored into developing an appropriate seed system for climate resilient rainfed agriculture. A community managed, decentralize seed system in public-people-partnership with adequate budget allocation and legal provisions can best address the seed requirements of rainfed areas.

The Crippling Seed Economy of Rainfed Agriculture

• Served mostly by the informal seed sector without much public investment in research and development,
• Unavailability of quality seeds of diverse and locally adapted crops in time,
• Ne seed buffers for climate contingencies, high susceptibility to climate variability, contingency plans remain a rhetoric,
• High seed costs – particularly high volume seeds like groundnut,
• Seed constraints of inter-crops, compelling farmers to resort to mono-cropping,
• Loss of locally adapted landraces and (indigenous) agro-biodiversity,
• Poor public investment and non-availability of subsidies and access to state supported schemes.

The Seed Systems of India

1. Formal Seed Sector: Seed market of India worth US$ 2.7 billion and the sixth largest seed market in the world (ISF, 2013). The private and public sectors are the only players in the formal seed system. Much of the seed sales in India have been confined to supply and sale of only a handful of seed varieties of high yielding varieties (HYVs) and cash crops. Only 30-35 per cent of the seed requirement is met by the formal sector, and the rest 65-70 per cent is met from the farm saved, informal seed system.[1],[2],[3]
2. Public Seed Sector: Promotes HYVs, focuses on seed replacement ratio. Supplies only handful varieties of high-volume, low-value seeds. Highly centralized with poor outreach and caters to subsidized seed distribution. Confined to Seed Village Programme, promotion of certified seeds, QC, market regulation and research, and Small-scale farmers may not have access to certified seeds.
3. Private Seed Sector: Supplies cross-pollinated, high-value and low-volume seeds. Do not supply low-volumes of diverse low-value crops seeds and Low penetration in the rainfed regions.
4. Seed Village Programme: Meant for replacement of farmer saved seeds, the seed village programme (SVP) is ad-hoc and do not have any mechanism for procurement and supply of locally produced seeds to ensure a seed supply chain. 
5. Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers Act 2001: There is a lack of mechanism for multiplication and integration of locally adapted landraces and the registered famers’ varieties into the formal seed supply chains. 
6. Informal Seed Sector: Predominantly farm produced, caters to 65-70 % (upto 90% in few Indian states) of seed requirement of the country with high potential for production of diverse crops. Self-pollinated, diverse indigenous land races and varietal choices adapted to local weather and soil conditions. Maintains buffer seeds to meet contingencies. Conserves indigenous agro-biodiversity and indigenous knowledge and practices. Retains farmers’ sovereignty over seeds and food production, and Minimizes investment on seeds, promotes local enterprises and economy.

Public-People-Partnership

• Location specificity, diversity and contingency are core to an appropriate seed system for rainfed agriculture; the present seed systems cannot meet these requirements,
• Public investment on an appropriate seed system for rainfed agriculture can stimulate growth, provide security against vagaries of climate change, and
• Government partnership with farmers’ organizations can best serve the purpose of rainfed areas.

In the above context, a National Workshop was organized by WASSAN (http://www.wassan.org/) on designing an appropriate decentralized seed system for rainfed agriculture in India and we are in the process of finalizing the proceedings, which will be shared soon.