Indore, 22 June (Commoditiescontrol) The sheen of the soybean crop referred to as `peela sona’ (yellow gold) is wearing off in Madhya Pradesh as it has hardly become a profitable venture for the majority of farmers in the state with declining return on their investment. For the current seeds crisis, the farmers are laying blame on the government and its agencies which, according to them, are hand in glove with private agencies claiming to be selling certified soybean seeds.
This is for the first time in many years that farmers in Madhya Pradesh faced acute dearth of soybean seeds. Even as the state government has claimed to have enough soybean seeds to meet the sowing requirement of soybean farmers, the ground reality is completely different.
Due to non availability of certified soybean seeds from the Madhya Pradesh Seeds Corporation and the district level cooperative societies, farmers are constrained to purchase soybean seeds from private agencies at prices ranging between Rs 90,000-Rs 10,000 per quintal, said Balram Patel, a soybean farmer of Sanwer area.
“It is responsibility of the government to ensure that farmers are provided with certified soybean seeds on time but the same has not been done and the government officials in order to provide undue benefits to the private agencies are even certifying their substandard quality soybean seeds. It is these agencies who are making most of the current seeds crisis in Madhya Pradesh and selling soybean seeds at astronomically higher prices’’, bemoaned another farmer of Dewas district on the condition of anonymity.
According to Jitendra Patel, a farmer of Mandleshwar tehsil in Khargone district, due to damage to soybean crops last year on account of late rains and pest infection, farmers of the region do not have germination quality soybean seeds and the majority of marginal farmers are not in a position to purchase soybean seeds at astronomically higher prices for sowing. As a result of this, they are showing more interest in cotton and cash rich crops this season.
Dr H S Rajput, Deputy Director, Agriculture, Indore division when contacted denied any shortage of soybean seeds for the farmers. “We have arranged soybean seeds for the farmers from the National Seeds Corporation as the Madhya Pradesh Seeds Corporation did not have enough seeds this year’’, he said adding private agencies have enough of soybean seeds, besides many farmers have also retained soybean seeds which are sufficient to meet their demands.
D N Pathak, Executive Director, Soybean Processors Association of India, though conceded to the soybean seeds crisis in Madhya Pradesh but at the same time said that it would not have any impact on soybean sowing which is yet to pick up momentum due to delay in monsoon rains in the region.
According to Dr Mrinal Kuchlan, a seed expert with the Indian Institute of Soybean Research, Indore, the decline in soybean seeds output in Madhya Pradesh has primarily been due to late rains and pest infection which battered the soybean crop, leading to decline in output and poor quality of soybean seeds not fit for germination.
“In Madhya Pradesh, in 90% of the area under soybean cultivation, JS 9560 variety of soybean seeds are used for sowing. This variety of soybean is prone to pest infection and harvested within a period of 85-90 days. For the past two years, Madhya Pradesh has been experiencing monsoon rains till September and October which is normally the harvesting time of the soybean crops. As a result of this the soybean crop gets damaged before it is harvested”, said Dr Kuchlan adding that the IISR has now been asking farmers to use improved varieties of soybean seeds like like JS 20-69, JS 20-98, JS 20-34 as a replacement for the popular soybean variety JS 95-60, for better soybean yield.
Madhya Pradesh agriculture minister Kamal Patel some time back had advised farmers of the state to look at other crops as soybean was turning out to be a loss-making move. Patel said heavy rains and insect attacks had caused heavy losses to soybean farmers over the last three seasons. "The state government is trying to sort out this problem (shortage of seeds). But the need of the hour is that farmers give priority to sowing other crops during the Kharif season’’, he added.
(By Commoditiescontrol Bureau: +91-22-40015505)
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