ACCESSIBILITY OF QUALITY SEED IN RURAL AREAS OF NEPAL
Quality seed:
Quality seed is defined as varietally pure with a high germination percentage, free from diseases and with a proper moisture content and weight. Quality seed ensures good germination, rapid emergence and vigorous growth. The availability, access, and use of quality seed of adaptable crop varieties, are critical in increasing agricultural productivity, ensuring food security, and improving farmers livelihoods. Since seed quality is one of the main factors that affects crop production potential it should reach farmers in a good quality state. Only Quality seeds will give high return per unit area as the genetic potentiality of the crops can be fully exploited.
Accessibility of quality seeds:
The availability of quality seeds for sowing is a critical factor affecting crop production. People in rural area is facing problems like low agricultural productivity, lack of easy access to inputs, low mechanization, old agricultural technologies, etc. As seed is among the most important productive resources that greatly affect productivity, the main factor due to which production is low in rural area is not easy in access of quality seeds. Low access and availability of improved and quality seed limits improvement in crop production.
Seed security is a prerequisites for food security of small holder farmers. In case of rural areas of Nepal ,timely and sufficient supply of quality seed of high yielding varieties has the potential to increase crop yields by about 15-25%. The major challenge in rural agricultural today is to develop seed production and delivery systems that encourage wider use of quality seed throughout the marketing chain. In addition, poor legislative and regulatory framework in the seed industry has adversely affected access to improved seed and planting materials by farmers. Poor accessibility to information regarding demand, supply and general performance of seed in market, were also among other constraints.
Farming community especially those in the marginal areas, face problems with seed access and often resort to using local seeds especially for cereals and pulses. The constraints for these farmers are wide ranging and includes persistent drought, high cost of inputs, and unavailability of inputs. Lack of information on type of seed suitable for particular regions has often brought confusion among farmers and crop failure.
How to increase Accessibility of quality seeds?
A well performing seed system must ensures farmers access to new seed of good quality, but without making farmer dependent on certain suppliers, inputs and rigidly certified quality.
Public policy interventions should target both the informal and formal elements of seed system and their integration.
Their should be simplification of procedures for the registration of traditional varieties in the national register of commercial varieties.
Extension services have the potential to better inform and supply farmers with well performing varieties coming from research and development.
More resources can be made available to increase farmers capacities to produce, select and store seed particularly for their own traditional varieties.
Farmers should be aware about basic terms like germination percentage, purity percentage, etc. so that they can see labels on the packet of seed which they are going to purchase.
Review the seed industry regulatory and legislative framework and proposed policy options to improve availability, access and utilization of improved seeds.
Conclusion:
Quality seed is among the most important productive resources that greatly affect productivity. Rural areas farmers do not have easy access to quality seeds due to many reasons. They have to go through many losses due to low quality seeds. Poor legislative and regulatory framework in the seed industry has adversely affected access to improved seed and planting materials by farmers. In coming days we expect that, there will be improved in accessibility to quality seed and hence increase agricultural productivity because quality seed is the only key to increase the per area production.
Writer: Rasmita Mainali (Student, Bsc Ag 4th Sem)