Faulty maize seeds haunt Sarlahi farmers again

KATHMANDU, April 27: It has been revealed that farmers in Sarlahi -- one of the five districts where farmers had suffered huge loss due to seeds of inferior quality last year - have planted faulty hybrid maize seeds this year as well.



A recent filed study report says the 30-B-11 (Pioneer) and DKC-90-81 varieties of hybrid maize seeds produced by PHI Seeds Ltd of India and Monsanto India Ltd are of inferior quality.[break]



The Department of Agriculture (DoA) earlier this month had deployed a team to maize fields in around half a dozen VDCs in the district to test field performance of maize seeds. The team had also found that two maize varieties -- X-92 and 10-B-10 - were sold to farmers before registering them with the Seed Quality Control Center at the DoA.



Last year, farmers had reported failure of maize crops in over 46,000 hectares in Bara, Parsa, Sarlahi, Rautahat and Nawalparasi districts. According to officials at the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, farmers there had suffered a loss of over Rs 3 billion. Farmers had planted seeds produced by different companies -- Pioneer, Pinnacle, Seed Tech, Sandhya and Tropical -- under the government´s three-year maize mission aimed at bringing down maize imports worth millions of rupees from India.



“More than 10 percent of the maize plants in fields, where 30-B-10 (Pioneer) and DKC-90-81 varieties of maize seeds were planted, had no ears,” said Madan Thapa, senior seeds development officer at Seed Quality Control Center, said.



The government has so far registered nine varieties of hybrid maize seeds and seven more varieties are in the process of getting registered with the recommendation of National Seed Board.



Keeping in view the increasing cases of crop failure due to plantation of inferior quality seeds, the government is preparing to amend the existing Seeds Regulations 1998, incorporating provision for appointment of crop inspectors to monitor quality of seeds in farms.



“We are also introducing the provision of authorizing private sector along with the government agency to make monitoring of seeds quality more effective,” said Thapa.

The regulations will also allow for private sector to setup lab for testing seed quality.



The government last year had declared relief package worth Rs 200 million to farmers who lost their maize crop. The package included free seed kits, cash relief, waiver of land tax and free distribution of chemical fertilizers.

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