Seed village scheme (svs) 

Since the inception of the O.S.S.C.Ltd, the seed production programme was taken up through selected seed growers, some of them were also the share holders of the O.S.S.C. Ltd. This approach was taken as per the provisions of the Articles of Association of O.S.S.C.Ltd. With the introduction of seed village programme, major quantity of production of seeds are being handled by the D.D.As up to 1996-97. It was experience that,

• Systamatically organized crop wise production in large dispersed locations in compact areas took long time to procure the seeds/
• Small size of seed lots caused less capacity utilization of processing plnants.
• Storage facilities of seeds in many areas were not available.
• It was also difficult to assess the actual procured quantity
• The gunny bags which were supplied to the DDA , the accounts were not available for reconciliation.
• Payment to the Growers through DDAs took unusually high time because more than 50 processing centres were uutlised.
• The seeds procured out of the seed village programme caused failure due to ODV.
• OSSC was required to spend extra time to reconcile and regularize the accounts.

To over come the difficulties caused by the seed village programme the Corporation started executing the above programme through selected seed growers some of them are also the grower share holders of the OSSC. The matter was placed in the 82nd Board meeting held on 7.2.2000 that OSSC to produce the state seed requirement through creating strong growers' network. Initially, 8 Nos of processing plants were available with OSSC and Government have ordered to transfer 18 Nos of Seed processing plants to OSSC as per the recommendation under National Seed Project III and these infrastructures will be adequate to OSSC to produce seeds patch wise organized in irrigated areas through selected growers. The production programe under seed village scheme will be chalked out and finalized with DDAs for better functioning of the system.

The Seed Production Officers of OSSC will act as a Nodal and executing officers at unit level supervised by Production Manager at Head office level. Breeder and Foundation seeds of different crops for production of Foundation and Certified seeds are arranged from different Govt. organizations and Universities inside and outside the state. As regards, paddy seeds the required quantities of Breeder and Foundation seeds are available with CRRI, OUAT and ANGRAU, Hyderabad.

Seed village scheme under goi

It was experience by the Govt. of India that despite implementation of Seed Village Programme since the mid 60's the seed replacement rate (SRR) has only reached the level of 15%. 85% of the seeds used are farm saved. It is therefore, necessary to improve the stock of farm saved seeds for enhancing crop production- productivity. For this, the seed production, the seed distribution and other connected aspects will have to be improved and strengthned at the farmers level. To upgrade the quality of farmer saved seeds which is about 82-85% of the total seed used for crop production programme, it is proposed to provide finaicial assistance for distribution of Foundation and Certfied seeds at 500% cost of the seed of crops for production of certified-quality seeds only and to prodvide training on seed production and technology to the farmers.

The seed production in this seed village will have to be preserved - stored till next sowing season. In order to encourage farmers to develop storage capacity of appropriate quantity, assistance will be given to the farmers for making - procuring of Pusa Bin-Mud Bin-Bin made from paper pulp for stoing of seeds produce by the farmers on their farms.

• Implementing Agencies 
  The implementing againcies will be State Departments of Agriculture, State Agriculture Universities, Krishi Vigyan Kendras, State Seeds Corporations, National Seeds Corporation, State Farms Corporation of India (SFCI), State Seed Certification Agencies, Department of Seeds Certification. One implementing agency will be identified for the area/ locality and is to be authorized by the State Govt.
• Approach:
  State Government and the implementing agencies will have to identify the areas of better seeds production and a compact area approach needs to be followed under this programme. Suitable responding willing minimum 50 farmers for same crop will be identified selected preferably in compact area cluster approach in consultation with the concerned State Department of Agriculture by the implementing agencies. The number of farmers may be more than 50 also subject to a maximum of 150.
  
  State Government will ensure that the project areas of different implementing agencies are clearly and separately demarcable. It should also be ensured that the areas under similar programmes that are being run by the State Government (if any) are not mixed up with the project areas under this scheme to avoid duplication and any misappropriation of funds.
  Some of the implementing agencies like Seeds Corporations may be involved in the commercial seed production and it is expected that they will not utilize funds under this scheme under their normal commercial seed growers programme. A certificate to this effect is necessary to be given in the initial proposal in the prescribed proforma.
  
  The crop varieties normally grown in the seeds villages will be decided in consultation with the farmers preferably the same crop for all the farmers.
  
  The project area should receive the assistance for a maximum period of two years so that the identified farmers become aware of the seed production technology and after the project period of two years they are able to independently take up the seed production programme in their normal activities. After the project period of two years for a particular area if the iimplementing agency wants to continue with the programme new compact areas may be identified and taken up.
• Supply of seeds:
  The concerned implementing agencies will distribute the foundation/ certified seeds at 50% cost to the already identified farmers. The seeds for half an acre per farmer will be allowed.
  
  The required foundation/ certified seeds of the crop varieties decided / identified will be sourced purchased from National Seeds Corporation/ State Seeds Corporation/ State Farms Corporation of India/ Seeds Cooperatives/ Sate Department of Agriculture/ State Agriculture Universities by the implementing agencies. For the rate purpose under this scheme, the rates of National Seeds Corporation which is operating throughout the country will be taken . An assistance of 50% will be provided on that basis only.
  
  If the implementing agency feels that farmers are showing more interest they can form self-help-group (SHG) and take the assistance for setting up of seed processing unit under 25% back ended credit linked subsidy scheme.
• Supply of Storage Bim:
  Assistance @ 33% subject to a maximum of Rs.3000/- for SC/ST farmers and @ 25% subject to maximum of Rs.2000/- for other farmers for procuring seeds storage bin of 20 qtl capacity.
  
  Assistance @ 33% subject to maximum of Rs.1500/- to SC/ST farmers and @ 25% subject to maximum of Rs.1,000/- for other farmers for making seeds storage bin of 10 Qtl. Capacity in the seed villages where seed village schem is being implemented.
  
  The implementing agencies would ensure that the beneficiaries have sufficient storage capacity for storing the seed and they should be told about the schem of subsidy for procurement of storage bins as above. No beneficiary should be provided 2 storage bins and assistance would be limited to only one storage bin as per demand from the beneficiary. The funds will be released to the implementing agencies for releasing the assistance proposed to the farmers for procurement of the storage bins.
• Submission of Proposals:
  The implementing agencies including NSC/SFCI will submit the proposals in the proforma Annexure-I to the State Government. The state Government will submit agency-wise implementation proposal to DAC. The proposal shold be recommended by the Director of Agriculture of the State Government. The ;proposal should be sent sufficiently in advance so as to give sufficient time to DAS to process them preferably two months before the start of the sowing season. The proposal may also be discussed during the Zonal Seed Review meetings for Rabi and Kharif crops.
• Monitoring of the Scheme:
  The Scheme will be monitored by the State Division of the Department of Agriculture and Cooperation. The implementing agencies will be required to send quarterly progress on the proforma attached as Annexure II
• Training:
  The concerned implementing agencies distributing foundation / certified seeds will provide the training on seed production ad seed technology to farmers for seed crops grown in the seed villages, The duration of the training would be three days out of which the first one day training will be given to farmers at the time of sowing of seed crop. Duting this training seed production technique, isolation distance, sowing practices, other agronomic practices to be followed for the given crop will be taught to the farmers. The second one-day training will be organized during flower initiations stage of the seed crop. The seed growing farmers will be trained to identify off types, rogues and its removal of these plants from the seed plots and to maintain the quality of seed production and other agronomic practices, plant protection measures and harvesting methods to be followed by the farmers. The third day training will be organized/ provided after harvest and at the time of seed processing to impart knowledge on seed cleaning, seed gradig, seed treating, seed storage, seed packaging aspects how to draw the representative seed sample, send the seed sample for seed testing/ local seed testing method to assess the seed germination.