Eleventh Five Year Plan - of Planning Commission

16 Eleventh Five Year Plan
important constraint. Soil health cards, giving regularly
updated information on major and micro nutrient,
should be issued to all the farmers. This would
require strengthening of soil testing labs in all parts of
the country and expanding their testing capacity to
cover micro-nutrients as well. Initial capital investment
will have to be made by the government and subsequent
maintenance may be funded out of the fee to
be charged for the services rendered by these labs.
The PPP mode can be explored wherever possible to
expand reach and ensure accountability.
1.41 The present system of fertilizer subsidy is irrational
and has become counter-productive. Fertilizer
is sold at almost the same controlled price throughout
the country. However, because nitrogenous fertilizers
are subsidized more than potassic and phosphatic fertilizers,
the subsidy tends to benefit more the crops and
regions which require higher use of nitrogenous
fertilizer as compared to the crops and regions which
require higher application of potassic and phosphatic
fertilizers. The imbalance in the use of nitrogen–phosphorus–potassium
(NPK) brought about by distortions
in prices ratio in favour of nitrogenous fertilizer
is creating serious problem of soil degradation and
adversely affecting productivity. Balanced use of fertilizer
can be achieved either by redistributing the
present amount of fertilizer subsidy over NPK in a
manner which is nutrient neutral or by increasing subsidy
on P and K in such a way that farmers are induced
to use NPK in the right proportion. The price
control system also discourages producers from adding
micro-nutrients to standard fertilizer eligible for
subsidy because the controlled price parameter for
that fertilizer cannot be adjusted to cover the cost of
micro-nutrient added. Immediate steps should be
taken to allow the major producers to charge costs for
TABLE 1.8
Production and Distribution of Seeds
adding micro-nutrients. Many of the micro-nutrients
are also reserved for small-scale production. This
segment should be dereserved in the interest of the
agricultural community.
SEEDS
1.42 Seed management is a very crucial element for
growth in productivity and the present situation is
highly unsatisfactory. There is practically no change
in the SRR in the States of Orissa, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh,
Jharkhand, Assam, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh.
At present the SRRs in respect of various crops in
different States are still relatively low and need to be
raised. The desirable SRRs, without which it is not
possible to achieve higher productivity, are 25% for
self-pollinated crops, 35% for cross-pollinated crops,
and 100% for hybrids.
1.43 Production of breeder seeds, foundation seeds,
distribution of certified seeds for the year 2004–05
to 2006–07 as compared to those in the triennium
ending 1996–97 and 2001–02 are given in Table 1.8.
Although the production of breeder seeds has increased
significantly, the production of foundation
seeds has not. There is a large increase in the distribution
of certified seeds but the quality of these seeds is
often questioned by farmers.
1.44 There are missing links in the seed production
system. There is very little focus on hybrid seed production
in public sector. However the private sector
has expanded to fill the gap. The private sector seed
industry in India is growing appreciably and has made
significant contributions to BT cotton, hybrids of
maize, rice, sunflower, etc. As shown in Table 1.9,
the share of private sector in seed production is increasing
whereas that of public sector is decreasing.
Programme Use/Production in Triennium Ending
Unit 1996–97 2000–01 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07
Production of breeder seeds Thousand Qts 43.72 44.27 66.46 64.88 73.83
Production of foundation seeds Lakh Qts 6.45 5.77 6.90 7.40 8.00
Distribution of certified/quality seeds Lakh Qts 79.01 86.41 120.26 126.74 191.98
Source: Report of the Working Group on Crop Husbandry, Agricultural Inputs, Demand and Supply Projections and Agricultural Statistics
for the Eleventh Five Year Plan (2007–12), Planning Commission, Government of India (December 2006).