Wheat sowing hangs in balance as growers unsure of seed quality

HYDERABAD: Though, wheat sowing has kicked off in some areas of Sindh province from mid October, a large number of farmers is wary whether the seeds they have acquired for this season are disease-free and will germinate or not.

Last year farmers had discovered low germination and rusting at the time of the ripening of the cereal crop, causing losses to them and resulting in overall low-yield in the province. Following this, many farmers seem unsure on which seed variety or brand to use for sowing this year.

The information gathered from farmers shows that last year 50-kg seed bag was available at Rs2,700, which this year is being sold at Rs3,500-3,800 per 50-kg bag. Each acre requires 50-kg seed, which the dealers prepare with their companies’ tags for sale.

The popular wheat seed varieties used in Sindh province include TD-1, TJ-83, and Kiran-95, Benazir, SKD-1, Sarsabz 90, Mehran-89, and others. These are known as high-yielding varieties, which the dealers claim to give 50-60/maund per acre average yield.

Apart from this, there are at least five indigenous wheat varieties, including Kahni, Sona, Pawan, Denglo, and Farm, which are being revived by a farmers’ network in Dadu district. These precious varieties had vanished around 40 years back. Now hardly a few farmers in Sindh keep these traditional seeds to cultivate safe grains for their own consumption.

There are some early varieties coming from Punjab and Balochistan provinces, which the farmers believe cannot give proper yield because of the changing weather in Sindh, and having rusting elements.

In this uncertain situation, Muhammad Ramzan, a small-scale framer from Naushehro Feroz district said many farmers wanted to sow 60-kg seed per acre instead of relying on recommended 50-kg for the same area to avoid uncertainty to have required germination and yield.

“The farmers in Naushehro Feroz district are preparing to cultivate wheat from November 15, which will continue to December end,” Ramzan said.

He said farmers were ready to purchase costly seed, but there was uncertainty due to flooding of adulterated seeds in the markets being sold under different brand names. “It is not only wheat, farmers are experiencing issues in cotton and rice too.”

There was no monitoring mechanism on the part of the government authorities to save farmers, who unknowingly get such seeds and face losses, Ramzan said.

The News has learnt that the provincial government’s different department officials either are not easily accessible or are reluctant to cooperate to resolve the farmers’ problems instantly to ensure timely cultivation of the crop.

In result, the entire province is facing a shortage of seeds, despite the fact there are various government institutions, which deal with seeds and help farmers acquire certified seeds timely.

Some farmers pointed out that when they approached the government institutions, they merely refused, saying if they had the seed they would have already distributed it among the farmers in the first week of October.

There are around 300 registered certified seed companies in the province. Similarly, some companies from Punjab also supply seeds to farmers in Sindh.

Despite this, some unauthorised dealers also provide seed varieties, which often create problems for farmers, causing low germination or crop diseases.

Presently, the entire country is experiencing shortage of wheat. As a result, flour has become hard to afford for many segments of soceity. At this moment, the provincial government has fixed the price of wheat at Rs2,000/maund in advance for the crop. The government justifies encouraging farmers to cultivate more area to avoid shortage, but forgets that consumers are losing their capacity to purchase food.

The reports show that the federal government opposed it and suggested to fix it at Rs1,600/ maund so the common man could be able to purchase easily. Finally the federal government has proposed to fix the support price at Rs1,785/ maund. Following this, the Sindh government wanted to take up the matter to the next cabinet meeting to decide.

In this situation, some analysts believe that farmers to make the most of this opportunity decided to cultivate more area so that they could earn enough income. That might have created the shortage of seed in the province, the analysts added.

Some complaints show the government institutions mostly obliged the leading growers, having political backing. Small-scale farmers are now at the mercy of certain dealers, who sell unapproved seeds with suspect germination and disease tolerance.

The provincial government last years had fixed Rs1400/ maund as wheat support price, but due to the incapability of providing gunny bags to farmers and opening of procurement centers, traders procured all the wheat at low price ranging from Rs1,100-1,200/maund. Due to this the government could not store proper wheat stocks at its warehouses to control the price issue.

Traders took advantage of the government’s leniency and sold the stock to flourmills and importers directly, creating shortage.

Anyway, the difference of price is double as the government had fixed Rs1,400/ maund during harvesting season and now farmers are being compelled to buy seed at Rs2,800/maund.

Mustafa Nangraj of Agriculture Extension department, who is a researcher and trainer, said, “The Federal Seed Certification Department is responsible to register seed companies for seed breeding”. “Though, after 18th constitutional amendment these all matters should have been shifted to the provinces, the differences over the matter still exist, creating uncertainty.”

Nangraj said breeding of seed usually took up to 5-10 years, but there were old varieties available, which performed well and were in huge demand.

He suggested that like fixing wheat grain support prices, there was a need to fix seed prices to avoid problems, like the ones farmers were facing now-a-days.

“Seed productivity is also lacking, keeping in mind the requirement, which is growing year after year,” Nangraj said.