The govt is implementing Seed Village Programme (Beej Gram Yojana) since 2014-15 to upgrade the quality of farmers’ saved seeds.
What do you mean by Seed Village?
- It is a village, wherein a trained group of farmers are involved in the production of seeds of various crops and cater to their needs themselves.
Seed Village Programme
- This program aims at upgrading the quality of farm-saved seeds.
- Under this, financial assistance is available for up to one acre per farmer for distribution of foundation/certified seeds at:
- 50% of seed cost for cereal crops
- 60% for pulses, oilseeds, fodder, and green manure crops
Objectives of the program
- Increasing the seed production
- Increasing the seed replacement rate
- Organizing seed production in cluster (or) compact area replacing existing local varieties with new high yielding varieties
- Self-sufficiency and self-reliance of the village
Implementation
The present program of seed village scheme is having two phases:
- Seed production of different crops: The area which is suitable for raising a particular crop will be selected, and raised with a single variety of a kind.
- Establishing seed processing unit: If the seeds are not processed and handled properly, all the past efforts in production may be lost. Thus seed processing and packaging is a very important aspect of seed production.
Benefits offered
- Seed is available at the doorsteps of farms at an appropriate time.
- Seeds are available at affordable costs even lesser than the market price.
- It has increased the confidence among the farmers about the quality because of known sources of production.
- It facilitates the fast spread of new cultivars of different kinds.
Back2Basics: Seed Replacement Rate
- It is the percentage of area sown out of the total area of the crop planted in the season by using certified/quality seeds other than the farm-saved seed.
- In simple terms, it is a measure of the cropped area covered with quality seed.
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