October 1, 2007	Monday	Ramazan 18, 1428

FOR increased production, quality seed is a fundamental input playing a vital role in technological development of agriculture sector. Seeds may be of open pollinated and hybrid types. Open pollinated varieties can be reproduced for many generations with little decline in quality, while hybrid seeds show marked decline in production in subsequent generations.

The seed industry in South Asia flourished with the green revolution in the late 1960s and this revolution was somewhat due to new varieties of different crops. In Pakistan, the first-ever movement by the government towards seed sector was the establishment of the West Pakistan Agricultural Development Corporation (WPADC) in 1961. The first seed project was launched in 1973.

Meanwhile, the Seed Act of 1976 was enforced to provide a regular structure for seed quality control and certification, variety registration and release, seed import and export, establishment and framework of national and provincial seed councils and the Federal Seed Certification and Registration Department (FSCRD). This was much in time but unfortunately the seed business was declared as seed industry in 1994, which was very late.

The seed industry consists of two sectors i.e. large public sector and growing private sector. Public sector plays role in research, policies, and framework for the seed industry and keeps production and marketing as second priority whereas private sectors deal with both the tasks. Generally, private sector deals in hybrid seed to get maximum yield, while public sector does well also for open pollinated varieties.

At the same time, 90 per cent seed requirement of some cereal crops like rice and wheat are used from the saved stock of the last crop which is called local seed system. The government is paying attention towards public and private sectors but no attention is being paid towards providing information and capital to local farmers. Now-a-days, this system has been turned down due to restricted policies of the government but still it contributes a lot.

The private sector is obtaining good yield by introducing hybrid seeds having potential of high and good quality production. After declaring seed business as seed industry, availability of seed has increased seven to 18 per cent. The private sector has remained neglected in government policies as they think that this sector is hostile to local farmers, providing costly seeds to farmers. But, it is a fact that private sector has contributed a lot more than the public sector. As the payoff to research and higher agricultural productivity is high in poor countries, the investment of private capital in agricultural research contributes to economic development.

At present, more than 538 national and five multinational seed companies are registered and allowed to release crop seeds. Pakistan still needs a lot of investment and technology to modernise its seed industry. The government has invested Rs818.65 million in seed industry against the total volume of $45 billion per year in international seed market. A total of 426 crop varieties were released and registered up to 2005. The distribution of crop varieties of wheat, cotton, rice, maize, barley, sugarcane, oilseeds, pulses, fodder, fruits and vegetables are 93, 72, 30, 20, 8, 30, 49, 51, 27, 13 and 46, respectively. In 2000-01, annual need of crop seeds for the country was over 12,70,000 mt while available seed was 2,19,000 mt (local available seed was 2,00,800 mt, and 18,700 mt seed was imported), so having a gap of 82.7 per cent.

The value of seed is increasing rapidly as the world has become a global village and availability of resources is at the door step. Keeping in view the world scenario and WTO challenges, to meet our requirements and withstand in international market, business and industry, there is a need to establish the seed sector on sound footings by taking some bold steps in this area. Otherwise, international seed trade and share of the germplasm will affect the seed industry of the Third World countries, including Pakistan, to a great extent. The following are some key points to establish a successful seed industry.
To consolidate the plant breeding programme, it should include not only the conventional breeding but also the advanced molecular approaches in the field of biotechnology. It will lead to availability of new high-yielding varieties of different crops, well adapted to local agro-ecological conditions.

Responsibility of basic seed multiplication should be given to only those skilled farmers who have knowledge of seed production. Moreover, farmers should be crop specific i.e. one farmer should be given the responsibility of seed production of only one variety of a crop.

Zoning of crop seed production areas, specific for crops, should be implicated. There is a great diversity of climatic conditions in Pakistan which permit seed production of different crops in different areas. The Soan valley in the Punjab, Naseerabad and Quetta in Balochistan and Kashmir Valley are the ideal areas for seed production. Moreover, it should be ensured that proper isolation distance should be maintained among different varieties of the same case crop, otherwise it will case admixtures (mixture of two varieties).

Quality seed produced in different areas, by different growers, should be assessed. Only seed of highest quality having maximum germination as well as vigour should be marketed. Therefore, seed testing labs should be ensured at district level or at least divisional level.

Seed produced must be physically and genetically pure, that is it should be free of inert matter, weed seeds, other crop seeds and seeds of other varieties. It must be graded and properly packed. Seed pack must guarantee the maximum storage period. It should indicate crop and variety name, germination percentage, purity percentage, inert matter percentage, other crop seeds percentage, weed seeds percentage and moisture contents of the seed.

Seed introduced in the market by different multinational and national seed companies must be subjected to strict quarantine measures to restrict the introduction of any pathogen and pest.

Penalty should be imposed on those companies and dealers who are involved in adulteration or selling seed of poor quality seeds.

By observing the above mentioned points, our seed industry can be developed to a great extent leading to prosperity of farmers and ultimately the country.