Machine-harvestable chickpea variety ‘Phule Vikram’, which was launched two years ago in India, is helping farmers circumvent labor shortage during harvest in major chickpea producing states like Maharashtra. Besides reducing cost, Vikram is also proving highly remunerative, given its yield potential.

“I cultivated Phule Vikram on 20 hectares and harvested 60 tons during 2018-19. The produce was sold as seed at Rs 70,000 per ton (US$ 1000),” said Mr ChandrakantAmbadasraoDeshmukh, a farmer from the Indian state of Maharashtra, who reported earnings of Rs 3.4 million (US$ 48,600) from his produce. Mr Takalimiya and Mr Rajendra Patel, two other farmers from the state, also said they achieved high yields with the variety.

Shortage of labor in agriculture, mainly for harvesting and threshing, is a challenge chickpea farmers in India are increasingly facing. As a result, high-yielding machine-harvestable varieties are sought. This rising demand led to the release of machine-harvestable varieties, including Vikram, for all of India’s central zone.

In Maharashtra, one of the Indian states where Vikram was first released in 2017, the cultivation of machine-harvestable varieties has been rising. The average chickpea productivity in the state in 2017-18 was 892 kg per hectare resulting from total production of 1.84 million tons on 2 million hectares. Farmers cultivating Vikram have reported yields ranging between 3 and 4 ton per hectare.

Vikram was developed by a team of scientists including Dr NS Kute, Dr. SR Gadakh, and Mr LB Mhase from Mahatma PhuleKrishiVidyapeeth from ICRISAT’s breeding line ICCV 08108.

MPKV has strong collaboration in chickpea breeding with ICRISAT, which has yielded many varieties besides Vikram—Vishal, KAK 2, Virat, Vihar JG 11 and JAKI 9218.

Source: cgiar

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The agriculture ministry is likely to take a decision on revising the price of Bt cotton seeds, including the trait value (tech fee), by March to help farmers plan for the kharif planting season which starts in June.

The industry has sought a 10 per cent increase in price because of rising input costs. Some manufacturers have sought pricing freedom.

Last year, the government had fixed the price of Bt cotton seeds at Rs 730 per 450 gm package, which was 1.35 per cent lower than the previous year’s, to bring in pricing parity across states.

India, the world’s biggest cotton producer, grew cotton on 12,767,000 hectares in 2019-20, about 600,000 hectares more than the previous year. Mahyco Monsanto Biotech provided the bollgard technology to 45 cotton seed producers which included Rasi Seeds, Nuzivedu Seeds, Kaveri seeds, Bayer India and Mahyco, among others.

“We will be taking a decision on cotton seed prices after discussions with industry and farmer representatives. A meeting is expected in a fortnight with the stakeholders, post which the gazette notification will be issued,” said an official of the agriculture ministry, adding that some seed manufacturers have made representations for higher price.

The ministry had issued the Cotton Seed Price (Control) Order, 2015, under the Essential Commodities Act, 1955. In 2016-17, Bt cotton seed prices were first lowered by a panel constituted by the Centre. Since then, except in 2017-18, prices have been reduced.

Both the National Seed Association of India (NSAI) and Federation of Seed Industry of India (FSII) have asked the government to raise cotton seed prices.

“Cotton seed price should go up by at least 5-10 per cent to reach Rs 770-800 per 450 gm pack. Cost of labour accounts for 60 per cent of the cost of seed production, and it has gone up in the recent past. We feel that there is a need to increase seed price to meet the higher cost of production,” NSAI president M Prabhakar Rao told.

The hike in minimum support price of cotton has also led to rise in seed production, said Ram Kaundinya, director general, FSII. “Ideally, we want the price control order to be revoked as it has resulted in reduction in research investment by both biotech and seed companies. But if it continues, then seed prices should increase by 10 per cent to Rs 800-810 per 450 gm packet to offset the cost of seed production,” said Kaundinya.

Source: economictimes

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