seed industries development in bangladesh

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Introduction
Bangladesh is primarily an agriculture based country with agriculture accounting for 23% of the
country’s Gross domestic product (GDP). Agricultural production can be increased by 15-20%
through use of quality seed keeping other things constant. The legal and regulatory framework for
seed is currently provided by (i) the National Seed Policy (NSP), 1993; (ii) the Seed Ordinance,
1977 (Amendments in 1997 and 2005); and (iii) the Seed Rules, 1998. The Plant Quarantine
Regulation is considered part of the regulatory framework as it also affects the seed sector. The
Plant Variety and Farmers’ Rights Protection Act, 2009, and the proposed National Plant Genetic
Resources Institute (NPGRI) are also critical components of plant breeding and the seed system in
Bangladesh.
In Bangladesh, government institutions have until recently been responsible for seed production
and seed supply. Restrictions on the use of new genetic material, levies on seed imports and
subsidies on domestic produced seed prevented the emergence of the private seed sector. In the
late 1980’s, the private sector therefore only supplied about 5% of the total requirement for seed.
The National Seed Policy (NSP) of 1993 and Seed Rules of 1998 paved the way for active
participation of the private sector and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in seed
production. The intension of the NSP was gradually to rationalize and decentralize the national
seed sector and attract private investment in the seed sector. Given the new policy framework, the
Government of Bangladesh (GOB) provided a conducive environment (policy, institutions and
infrastructure) for investments and initiatives in the private seed sector. The increased participation
of private-sector actors in seed production is also a result of several donor-driven Government
projects. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) supported the
Strengthening of the National Vegetable Seed Program (1986–93), working with Bangladesh
Argicultural Development Corporation (BADC), Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute
(BARI) and Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE). The Deutsche Gesellschaft für
Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) supported the Bangladesh German Seed Development Project
with BADC (1989–2000). Danida supported seed industry development through their sector-wide
support activities in agriculture and worked with all the players in the seed industry (2002–2006).
All these projects contributed to stimulating the private sector to produce and market good-quality
seed as well as strengthening the capacity of the public-sector actors, thereby improving the
interface between the sectors. BADC is the only public sector mandated to produce large quantity
seed of various kinds. It receives Breeder Seed from Agricultural Research Institutes (ARIs) and
produces Foundation Seed in its own farms; Truthfully Labeled Seeds (TLS) are produced through
contract growers. It produces seed of cereals (rice, wheat and maize), potato, jute, pulses and
oilseeds, vegetables and spices. It supplies about 20 percent of the country’s cereal seed
requirements and about 2–5 percent of seed of other crops. It has about 1300 licensed dealers for
marketing certified seed, including registered private seed dealers and NGOs. BADC and private
companies sell truthfully labelled seed (TLS) produced by contract growers. TLS are exempted
from quality certification by Seed Certification Agency (SCA). Recently, GOB funded projects
“Production, Storage and Distribution of Quality Rice, Wheat and Jute Seeds at Farmers’ Level”,
which started in 2007 and “Improvement and Quality Seed Production of Rice, Wheat and
Maize”(2009-2013) the Government is trying to ensure production and supply of quality seed
among the farmers.

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Most plant breeding in Bangladesh continues to be in the public domain. However, NGOs and
private companies are becoming increasingly involved in plant breeding, in response to the
growing demand from farmers for good-quality and better-performing varieties. Private Sector
Seed firms include Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC), PROSHIKA, Lal Teer
Seeds, Grameen Krishi Foundation, Rangpur Dinajpur Rural Service (RDRS), Aftab Seeds,
Supreme Seeds Com. Ltd., ACI seeds, Getco, Northern Agriculture & cultivation Co. Ltd.
(NAICOL) etc. produce mainly improved varieties of vegetables and grain crops. Of the total
quantity of seed used in the country, only about 25% is said to be of good quality, the balance is
deemed inferior. Institutional weaknesses of public sector organizations and absence of consistent
policies and their implementation to promote growth of private seed enterprises are affecting
production and supply of quality seeds in adequate quantities at a reasonable price. Manpower,
funds, and facilities are inadequate in BADC, hampering production of increased quantities of
quality seed.
Seed processing and storage facilities of BADC are inadequate to cater for both public and private
sector needs. Seed production, processing and storage require elaborate infrastructure and sizeable
capital, beyond the capacity of most NGOs and private sector enterprises. There is genuine dearth
of quality seeds. Farmers themselves supply most seeds but since they have inadequate knowledge
of producing and preserving good seeds, quality of seeds at farmers level deteriorates very fast.
Agricultural Research Institutes (ARIs), i.e. Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI),
Bangladesh Rice Research Institute(BRRI),Bangladesh Institute of Nuclear Institute(BINA),
Bangladesh Jute Research Institute (BJRI), Bangladesh Sugarcane Research Institute (BSRI) and
Ag-Universities are mandated to produce and supply breeder seed to BADC. Breeder seed supply
by ARIs to BADC is inadequate due to lack of physical facilities and manpower and funding
constraints. It is almost impossible for any one agency to solve the full range of seed-related
problems unassisted. Activities of the Government, private sector, NGOs and farmers need co-
ordination which is yet to be established successfully. It is not surprising that most of the private
sector seed companies prefer importation rather than production of seed and Research and
Development (R&D). There is a lack of regulation to this effect. Difficult import procedures and
restricted access to credit are constraints to private seed industry development. Human Resource
Development in the seed sector is limited in NARS (National Agricultural Research System),
BADC, SCA and NGOs. The entire situation is aggravated by weakness of the Seed Wing of the
Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) and its inability to monitor and foster thegrowth of the seed
industry and to provide adequate support to the National Seed Board (NSB). Linkages between
SCA, Plant Quarantine and National Seed Pathology Laboratory are almost absent. Similarly, co-
operation among NARS, BADC and SCA is not optimal.Although public sector research
organizations form the most important component of agricultural R&D system but the changing
environment in which the institutes operate demands adjustments in their structure and roles. There
is a need to develop effective partnerships and linkages with universities, private sector and NGOs.
Commercial enterprises, NGOs, universities and public sector research organizations are real and
definable entities of innovation systems. A focus on only one or group of public or private sector
institutions will not necessarily guarantee impacts on production and sustainable resource use.
Combining collective wisdom and knowledge of potential actors, with hands-on-experience, is
becoming a new way of generating innovation. These developments have changed the context of
agricultural research which hopefully will help towards self sufficiency and ultimately future food
security in Bangladesh.

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Food security is highlighted as one of the main priorities for Bangladesh in the country’s
Investment Plan, and a sustainable seed supply constitutes a pivotal component of food security.
Side by side with domestic food production, greater importance is given to ensure access to
adequate and safe food by all people at all times for maintaining an active and healthy life. The
challenge of food security in Bangladesh is huge. In spite of making considerable socioeconomic
progresses over the years, Bangladesh still has the third largest number of poor after China and
India. Food security is a complex sustainable development issue, linked to health through
malnutrition, but also to sustainable economic development, environment, and trade. Agriculture
remains the largest employment sector in Bangladesh and international agriculture agreements are
crucial to the country's food security. Food security in Bangladesh is characterized by considerable
regional variations. Factors such as tendency to natural disasters, distribution and quality of
agricultural land, access to education and health facilities, level of infrastructure development,
employment opportunities, and dietary practices provide possible explanations for this. Food
security of the country has been significantly and adversely affected by recent rising of food prices,
and the amount of food insecure populations increased. Bangladesh is a very densely populated
country that has moved from chronic dependence on imports to meet basic food needs at the time
of independence in 1971 towards becoming almost self-sufficient in rice production as a result of
high-yielding varieties, irrigation, efficient use of fertilizers, flood protection measures and
expansion of rural credit networks. Rice is the staple food, contributing to over 63 percent of the
caloric intake for urban consumers and over 71percent for the rural population. The percentages
are much higher for the poor. Food security situation in Bangladesh has improved, especially on
the availability side, and further improvements on access and utilization, to be sustainable and
large-scale, needs renewed efforts from the government, civil society (including media) and the
development partners.
On national scale, Bangladesh has obtained food through domestic production, imports and food
aid. The first two sources have increased while food aid decreases. The role of food production in
food security cannot be over emphasized given the country’s low income, recurrent natural
calamities and increasing international prices of food commodities. The National Food Policy and
the National Agricultural Policy promote attaining food-grain self sufficiency as well a reasonable
non-grain sufficiency. Food security is a multi-sectoral, multi-ministerial issue. There is a need to
develop an integrated policy and action plan, bringing together all the diverse players and
stakeholders as well as making them accountable to contributing their bit to the overall challenge
of improving Food Security. However, although rice productions are largely sufficient, self
sufficiency in other fooditems is still to be achieved. For example among non-cereal food, 70% of
the pulse requirements get imported and Bangladesh produces only 34% of its edible oil.
Estimation of requirement, demand and supply (availability) of other food items- vegetables,
pulses, fruit etc should be systematically carried out and the National Food Policy, the Import
Policy and the Agricultural and the Nutrition Policy should address these requirements in a
planned, integrated fashion.

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Aims and Objectives
To know how to develop seed industries and make sustainable seed production for further uses
Bangladesh Society of Seed Technology is a professionals, non-political and not for profit
making organization and work for promotion of Seed Technology.
Promote scientific, technological and professional jobs in the field of seed research, seed
production, seed processing, seed storage, seed testing, seed certification, see
Works towards maintaining fullest cooperation, highest proficiency and professional standard
among all seed technologists including personnel engaged in seed research, seed production, seed
processing, seed storage, seed testing, seed certification, seed marketing, seed law enforcement
and any other aspects related to seed technology.
Encourage developing mutual understanding and professional interests among technologists
involved in the field of seed technology.
Encourage research on different aspects of seed technology.
Accumulate educational training programme, national and international seminars, workshop,
conferences, symposium etc for promotion of seed technology.
Cooperate with government, universities, research institutes, seed associations, private seed
companies, NGOs and all other others agencies interested in promotion of seed technology and
the use of Quality Seed.
Publication of technical books and journals, periodicals, booklets, pamphlets, print and
electronic media materials on seed technology.
Take up any other activities which necessary for promotion of seed technology.
Demand and Supply of Quality Seed:
In the recent years supply of quality seed both from public and private sector has shown a very
remarkable increase. The following table show the quantity of different seed supplied in the year
2009-10 to 2013-14 . The quantity of seed supply was 240475 mt. in 2009-10. Seed supply quantity
has increased to 267777 mt. in 2012-13, which is 21 % of the total demand. Hopefully seed supply
will reach to 314526 MT in 2014-15, which is 27% of seed demand.
Though the total supply of quality seed in 2012-13 was only 21% may indicate alarming. But in
reality situation is much letter, became rice is our main crop and in case of rice the quantity of
quality seed supply is almost 60%, incase of wheat it is 56%, maize 75%, Jute 83% etc. The total
average goes down due to less supply of spices and oil seed. The quality is also less in case of
Potato. Actually BADC supplies only 2-3% of quality potato seed, and the rest of the seed comes
from the Farmers own production. If we can increase the supply up to 30% (which is projected in
2015) that will be a great success for the agriculture sector of the country.

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Bangladesh Seed Industry at a Glance
Bangladesh Seed Grower, Dealer and Merchants Assocation (BSGDMA) Asian Seed Congress
2007, Manila, Philippines.Bangladesh is primarily an agriculture based country with agriculture
accounting for 23% of the country’s GDP. About 75% of the country’s population is engaged in
agricultural production.
The seed industry in Bangladesh comprises of both public and private sector initiatives. In the
private sector, there are more than 100 companies involved, with over 5000 registered seed dealers
operating across the country. The recent expansion of the private sector seed companies has
resulted in the engagement of thousands of contract farmers into the formal seed production chain,
leading to improved livelihoods amongst the rural community. Government agencies involved in
this sector include Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation (BADC), Bangladesh
Agricultural Research Institute (BARI), Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI), Bangladesh
Jute Research Institute (BJRI) and Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE). The government
has recently given the seed sector a “priority” status. Of the locally produced vegetable seeds,
nearly 905% is accounted for by the private sector. The government agency most actively involved
in vegetable seed production is BADC. Vegetable production is Bangladesh has traditionally been
seasonal, with 70% of the vegetables being grown in the dry winter months between November
and February, and only about 30% during the rest of the year. Recent initiatives from the private
sector have emphasized the development of vegetable varieties suitable for growing during the hot
and wet summer months between March a-October-enabled by the production of off season
vegetable seed varieties. The past decade has also been marked by a transition from Open
Pollinated to Hybrid varieties-deriving maximum utilization from the existing land mass. With
regards to rice seed this year, an additional 1 million hectare of land has been brought under hybrid
rice production. This required 11400 MT of seed, and of this 1800MT was locally supplied while
the rest was imported. The production, marketing and import of the entire volume of the hybrid
rice seed was undertaken by the private sector.
However, hybrid rice seed accounts for less than 5% of total rice seed requirement. Considering
the land limitations in the country, recent trends indicate a shift towards the production of high
yielding varieties of both vegetables and rice. Locally produced varieties including Red Amaranth,
Stem Amaranth, Yard Long Bean, Bitter Gourd and Cabbage have found markets in Europe and
some countries of South EastAsia.

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Market Size of Seed in Bangladesh
Crop Name Quantity of Seed Used in
Agriculture (MT)
Market Price of Seed
Used in Agriculture (M Dollar)
Rice (HYV) 288956 124
Rice (Hybrid) 25000 71
Wheat 72000 26
Maize 3300 5
Jute 3570 3
Pulse 21350 15
Oil Seed 13500 10
Vegetable 2700 12
True Potato 400000 171
Total 830376 436
Source: Seed Wing, Ministry of Agriculture, 2006

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BANGLADESH TRADE OVERVIEW
LEGAL FRAMEWORK:
The legal framework in Bangladesh is sufficiently modern to allow Bangladesh to address trade
facilitation issues. Bangladesh has revised its customs laws to comply with the Revised Kyoto
Convention (RKC) and significant progress has been made in implementation of the RKC. Despite
the progress to date, there is a need for more transparency with respect to the laws. A new USAID
project will soon be launched in Bangladesh, attempting to address some of these concerns by
implementing a new website and an advance rulings program. The GOB understands the need to
engage in trade facilitation efforts to bring Bangladesh up to international standards. Both the
Ministry of Commerce (MOC) and the National Board of Revenue (NBR) indicated a particular
interest in implementation of the World Customs Organization (WCO) SAFE framework of
standards and the Single Window program, both intended to better utilize available government
resources while speeding up the trade process. The major trade-related legislation in Bangladesh
is shown in Table 7. Bangladesh and India signed a series of new agreements in January 2010 to
address some of the barriers to bilateral trade through new trade and transit provisions for
Bangladesh.
These include: 1) the extension of duty-free access beyond India’s SAFTA to help narrow the large
trade gap; 2) transit rights for goods from India‘s northeastern state of Tripura to Chittagong,
including a new rail link; and 3) the allowance of rail transit from Bangladesh to Nepal and Bhutan.
The increased rail transit is expected to benefit Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan, giving landlocked
areas greater access to ports.

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Seed regulatory framework
Key features of the seed regulatory framework include:
»» Registering with MoA as a seed company takes seven days and is free. This favors market entry
and competition.
»» Introducing (registering) a new variety is automatic and free, except for five notified crops.
This favors market entry and competition.
For five notified crops (rice, wheat, jute, sugarcane and potatoes) registering a new variety requires
tests for VCU as well as for DUS. The Seed Rules (Article 7) invite “any seed dealer” to submit
varieties of notified crops for testing and registration; even so, the MoA has not established
procedures to assess private varieties of inbred (i.e., non-hybrid or self-pollinated) rice, and has
not registered any variety of any notified crop other than hybrid rice. MoA practices and private
companies’ experiences have been different across these five crops, as follows:
I. For hybrid rice, the MoA requires official VCU tests in six locations for two years and for DUS
for one year; after tests the MoA may approve or deny registration. Registration, if approved, takes
about 860 days and costs$878 . According to a recent analysis, “faulty release rules” have focused
on yield, ignoring farmers’ desire for short-duration cultivars. The MoA has not registered any
inbred rice varieties from India.
II. For potatoes, private companies submit varieties for registration after which the Bangladesh
Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) tests varieties for several years at its own expense.
III. Most jute area in Bangladesh is planted to an Indian jute variety (JRO-524) with jute seeds
from India. Bangladesh has hundreds of registered jute seed importers and also informal importers
(smugglers); importers do not label packages with their own name, but rather sell in packages
naming Indian companies. Although Bangladesh has been importing Indian jute seeds for several
decades, the MoA has not registered any Indian jute variety. MoA allows imports as an exception
to its own Ordinance and Rules, giving import permits to companies on a case-by-case
basis, listing the allowed quantity.
IV. No private varieties have been registered for wheat or sugarcane.
V. Seeds of all crops, including notified crops, can be sold as truthfully labeled seed; certification
is available but voluntary. This favors competition. Quality is maintained by competition
and truth-in-labeling.
VI. Seed imports require an MoA permit detailing phytosanitary conditions and must meet
Bangladeshi quality standards; for five the notified crops, seeds must be of registered varieties.
VII. Seed exports must meet quality standards. The MoA submitted a plant variety protection
(PVP) bill to the Ministry of Law in 2010.72 The draft proposes to establish PVP according to
International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) guidelines and appears
to be suitable for GOB to join the UPOV. GOB arrangements to regulate GMOs include Biosafety

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Guidelines and National Biosafety Framework, both published in 2008, and (draft or approved)
Biosafety Rules73. On October 31, 2013, Bangladesh approved release of several varieties of
GMO brinjal, the first GMOs approved in Bangladesh.
Development Strategies of Seed Industries:
The purpose of this study is to present ways of developing the domestic seed industry by exploring
recent trends of the seed industry and finding out its problems. When the market value of the seed
industry in 2010 was estimated, the value of food seeds was 75.4 billion won, vegetable seeds
236.8 billion won, fruit seeds 116.6 won and flower seeds 259.2 billion won. The total market
value of the seed industry was estimated, therefore, at 688 billion won. The seed industry is divided
into four parts and each part has a different structure. The production and distribution are operated
in the food seed industry by the state and in the vegetable seed industry by private companies. In
the fruit and flower industry, the production and distribution are indeed partly operated by the state
and partly by private companies, but in this case most seeds are imported.
According to the investigation on the vegetable seed companies, the proportion of the companies,
which achieved in 2012 revenue over 10 billion won, was 36.8 % and the companies of revenue
under 5 billion won accounted for 57.9%, but the companies of revenue between 5 and 10 billion
won accounted for only 5.3%. Consequently the corporate structure of vegetable seed companies
can be seen as a polarization by the large and the small companies. The opinion survey about the
agricultural policy for the seed industry shows that 70% of the farmers prefer the production and
distributions of food seeds by the state. On the other hand, the majority of seed companies prefer
the privatization of the food seed industry. As for the breeding promotion policy, most farmers
prefer the promotion of the hybrids breeding to the gene manipulation (GM) breeding for the
consumer protection and food safety.
For the development of the domestic seed industry, the following measures can be suggested:
1) The basic direction of the seed industry policy should promote the breeding of the hybrid seeds
rather than of the GM seeds. The reasons for this are that the safety of GM seeds are still uncertain
and the GM breeding ability of domestic industry has no competition ability.
2) In order to protect the indigenous genetic resources from the patent rights of the climate gene
by the global enterprises, the Access and Benefit Sharing agreement (ABS) should be executed.
3)The privatization of food seed industry should be introduced gradually. Selecting the seed should
be also placed in order. In the transition phase towards privatization, the agricultural cooperative
(NACF) plays an important role.
4) To resolve the problem of dual structure in the vegetable seed industry, it is necessary to bring
the specialization of certain seeds by the coalition of many small companies.
5) In the fruit and flower industry, the strategy should be developed, in which one accepts the
foreign highly qualified varieties as a better technology and looks for ways of cooperation with
those foreign companies.

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Constraints in Seed sector
Capacity
Seed supply was mainly constrained by seed processing and preservation facilities. BADC has
some facility which can meet about 1,50,000 tons of seed. Private sector and NGOs have very
limited facilities. Govt. has paid attention to increase capacity as quickly as possible. Govt. has
already increased the seed preservation capacity of BADC from 44,000 MT to 1,50,000 MT.
Capability
Availability of trained manpower was a problem. Now through continuous training with the help
of universities and introducing seed technology course at post graduated level the problem is
almost solved. About 400 agricultural graduates completed post graduation course on Seed
Technology and contributing in different public and private seed sector to increase quality seed
production. Besides, Seed Wing has organized Seed Dealers training on Seed Technology in
different region of the country to upgrade the knowledge of the dealers about modern techniques
of production. About 2100 dealers have already the training.
Development of suitable varieties
Development of varieties are becoming more and more important. Farmers are now interested for
climate resilient varieties. Governments has been taken initiative to develop hybrid and stress
tolerance varieties of all crops.
BRRI has already developed salt and drought tolerant variety which will be very appropriate for
our salient belt. Moreover BRRI has developed submerged tolerant variety which can tolerate
flood water for more than 2 week. BSMRAU has already developed a short duration variety for
Aman season to easy adjust the Cropping pattern
Recent Development in Agriculture Research
Recently Government of Bangladesh give more attention to develop varieties which will be biotic
and a biotic stress tolerant with high yield within short duration. Some project are working in
research system to gain this object. In the meantime-Bangladesh Rice Research Institute developed
two-submerge tolerant variety name BRRI Dhan-51 and BRRI Dhan-52, saline tolerant variety
BRRI Dhan-53, 54, 55, 61 & 67; and drought tolerant variety BRRI Dhan-62, 63, 65 & 66. BINA
also developed BINA Dhan-7, 8, 9,10,11 & 12 which is also saline tolerant. BARI developed
drought tolerant wheat variety like BARI Ghom-24, 25, 29 & 30. BARI Also Developed 4 (four)
BT. Brinjal which is fruit fly resistant, they also developed late bright resistant potato BARI potato-
47 & 53.

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Impact of introduction of National Seed Policy
With the introduction of National Seed Policy 1993, the seed industry formal has got a legal base
and a momentum to emerge in a diversified way with dynamic approach. Private sector in seed
system started to act as an integral part of seed industry development. The total seed system
gradually started turning towards an organized system from unorganized one at private sector.
Participation of private entrepreneurs and NGO’s in seed business started rising day by day
following technologies at different stages of production, procurement, processing and marketing
of seeds in the organized way.
Private seed companies established and started functioning with productions and marketing of both
open pollinated and hybrid seeds of paddy, maize, vegetable etc. in using there own brand name.
Joint venture with foreign company has also emerged.
High yielding varieties developed by research under NARS at public sector, suitable under existing
agro-ecological environment gradually replacing traditional low yielding varieties.
BADC, at public sectors with its existing structural, functional and financial capabilities and
limited logistic support producing, processing & marketing quality seeds of different crops. The
quantity of supply is insignificant to the total national requirement of quality seeds. Seeds supplied
by BADC used by Farmers as a replacement seed stock for next year’s production.
Technical and financial assistance from the development partners is playing a vital role in
developing seed system as well as the seed industry in the country.
The motivational approach and promotional activities with seed by DAE and quality control issues
related to SCA is playing as essential element to accelerate the healthy growth of seed industry
development.
In the meantime Government formed a Seed Regulatory Reform Committee for cope up with new
dimension of Agro-biotechnology. Reform of the Seed Policy is almost finished and the Reform
of Seed Act & Seed Rules is under process now.
Plant Variety Protection :
Bangladesh is a signatory to WTO. Act in the name Plant Variety and Farmers’ Right Protection
Act is under process of approval by the authority. Rules in this regard will be framed after the act
is passed.
Plant Quarantine Act and Rules :
Bangladesh has a plant quarantine Act, 2011. The quarantine rules also made which is now under
approval process from Government.
Present Scenario of Seed :
Seed System of Bangladesh has an elaborate structure built on the concept of Seed Technology. It
has a Seed Policy and legislation to regulate the production and marketing of quality seed. It is
constrained by capacity and capability but proper attention has been paid to overcome the
constraints. Seed supply has been increasing steadily. Presently 20 percent of the requirement of
seed has been met. Hopefully 30% of requirement will be met by the year 2020-2021.

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Conclusion
Agriculture is for prosperity. Prosperity is to come out through quality agricultural inputs and
managements practices. Quality seed is one of the first and foremost prerequisites for a healthy
and vigorous crop. Seed is more than in agricultural input and a source of new technologies. A
range of developmental, socio-economic, environmental and political issues are also covered by
seed. So, for feeding the nations we need to come out with a holistic approach where the breeder,
seed technologist, farmers and policy makers will appropriately play their role for making quality
seed available. The proper implementation of the National Agriculture Policy will transform the
crop production system, and for that matter the overall agriculture into a dynamic sector over time,
which is expected to bring about significant positive changes in the economy of the country. In
respect of time, The National Agriculture Policy will be evaluated and reviewed in the context of
overall economic condition of the country and the changing agricultural production system and
accordingly measures will be taken to update this Policy. Good seed alone can give an increased
production to the extent of 15-20% over the poor seed. For that reason government has given a
clear mandate to the public sector through to act as catalyst in promoting private sector through
transfer of technology and providing breeder and foundation seeds. As a result many private seed
companies have been developed in our country and that company plays a vital role in respect of
production and supply of quality seed to the farmers.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Awareness should be created among the farmers about the quality seed.
Incentive support for both public and private sector seed production and marketing should be
enhanced.
Rules, regulations and procedures for import of seeds should continuously be revised and
adjusted when necessary.
Effective relationships should be established between public, private and NGOs sectors.

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