Seed industry in Gujarat: Estimation of supply, adoption and costing of quality seed Kalamkar S.S., Swain M., Bhaiya S. R. Agro-Economic Research Centre (Ministry of Agriculture, Govt. of India), Sardar Patel University, Vallabh Vidyanagar, Anand, Gujarat Online published on 23 October, 2017. Summary Gujarat has been a leading state in technology led growth in agriculture. Technology development and diffusion is a key driver of agricultural growth, fuelling cotton production, other farm output and raising the farmers’ income substantially. The technological intervention in terms of adoption of more HYV crops has undoubtedly increased the yield levels in the state. The rapid adoption of these HYV crops was mainly facilitated by increase in irrigation coverage and more fertilizer application. Due to technology intervention, the share of cash crops like cotton and horticultural crops has increased substantially during the last two decades. During 2000s, Bt cotton seeds and hybrid maize seeds have shown spectacular results in the state. The volume growth has come through increased Seed Replacement Rate (SRR) of major crops like cotton, groundnut and other important crops in the state. To complement with good agricultural growth in the state, the availability of quality/certified seeds has been made available as required in various part of Gujarat. Both private and public seed sector have contributed to the agricultural growth story in the state. While the public sector has played a role in production and distribution of HYV seeds of cereals crops like wheat, paddy, bajra, jowar and maize, while private seed sector has played a pivotal role in developing and promoting the use of Bt cotton and vegetable seeds. Though there has been substantial increase in area under HYV in the state, the inter-district variations in area under HYVs, crop production and productivity have also increased. Furthermore, the pace of growth of area under HYV has declined as such a majority of districts have witnessed a substantial fall in the rate of adoption during 1980s over 1970s in the state. The major concern has been on the front of improvement in SRR of some important crops of the state. Top Keywords Quality Seed, Supply and Adoption. Top |