Seed Production of Vegetable, Tuber and Spice Crops

Annual sale of seed of Indian Seed Industry

• Indian Seed Industry ranks 6 in domestic seed sales. Value of the seeds sold in the domestic markets of India is USD 1500 million or Rs.6675 crores. The present value of the seeds exported from India is around Rs.111.3 crores. India is at 29th place in export of seeds. This amounts to 0.35% of the world seed exports and 0.12% of the India’s agricultural exports.
World: Value of domestic seed markets (top ten countries) – 2010



Country	Domestic Market Value
U.S.A	12000
China	6000
France	2370
Brazil	2000
Germany	1950
India	1500
Japan	1250
Italy	715
Argentina	695
Canada	550


The commercial world seed market is assessed at USD 42 billion.

(Source: International Seed Federation – 2010.)

• India is bestowed with varied agro climatic conditions / zones, experienced and dedicated farmers, viable seed industry, legislations etc., favouring the production of quality vegetable seeds. Our strengths and the weaknesses in vegetable seed production are as below.
Strength of Indian seed sector

• A well developed and knitted seed multiplication and distribution systems linked with several ICAR institutes / SAUs / NSC / SFCI etc.
• A network of 20 seed certification agencies at national level, central & referral laboratory and 108 notified seed testing laboratories in state level to legally assure the quality seeds moving in the seed market.
• Over 6000 varieties & hybrids of different crops suitable for varied agro-climatic conditions were registered in National catalogue. This makes the selection easier for taking up production in a particular area.
• Our county is bestowed with varied agro climatic conditions, which can be exploited for taking up seed production of vegetables at any time of the year in one or other part of the country.
• Strong Network of Public & of Private stake holders of Seed Industry with Research and Development facilities
• A very fast development of private seed companies which are helpful in bridging the gap between demand and supply of vegetable seeds in the country.
• Proactive Government Policies and Programmes
Weaknesses

• Vegetable seed production in the country has been vulnerable to vagaries of weather resulting in production of poor quality seeds.
• Availability of realistic data on actual area under vegetable and requirements of vegetable seeds is inappropriate.
• There is no proper planning for cropping system and restriction for planting a particular crop, maintenance of isolation distance is difficult.
• Very low or no indents for new improved varieties due to ignorance about the performance of newly developed improved varieties.
• Non-availability of adequate nucleus and breeder seeds in the seed production chain.
• Problems in lifting of produced seeds against indents.