Seed Village Programme

Seed Village Programme

News: The govt is implementing Seed Village Programme (Beej Gram Yojana) since 2014-15 to upgrade the quality of farmers’ saved seeds.

Details:
• Seed village is a village, wherein a trained group of farmers are involved in the production of seeds of various crops and cater to their needs themselves. Seed Village Programme aims at upgrading the quality of farm-saved seeds.Under this, financial assistance is available for up to one acre per farmer for distribution of foundation/certified seeds at:
  • 50% of seed cost for cereal crops
  • 60% for pulses, oilseeds, fodder, and green manure crops
Objectives of the program include:
  • Increasing the seed production
  • Increasing the seed replacement rate
  • Organizing seed production in cluster (or) compact area replacing existing local varieties with new high yielding varieties
  • Self-sufficiency and self-reliance of the village
The present program of seed village scheme is having two phases:
  • The area which is suitable for raising a particular crop will be selected, and raised with a single variety of a kind.
  • If the seeds are not processed and handled properly, all the past efforts in production may be lost.
    Thus seed processing and packaging is a very important aspect of seed production.

Benefits:
• Seed is available at the doorsteps of farms at an appropriate time.
• Seeds are available at affordable costs even lesser than the market price.
• It has increased the confidence among the farmers about the quality because of known sources of production.
• It facilitates the fast spread of new cultivars of different kinds.