Maharashtra to push agriculture growth with domestic seeds

Aiming to match the growth rate of Gujarat in agriculture production, the state has decided to introduce a new agriculture policy. Gujarat has 13 per cent Gross Domestic Product (GDP) while Maharashtra is lagging far behind with negative GDP. The new policy will promote domestic seeds instead of Bio-technology (BT) seeds.

Speaking to mediapersons at Mantralaya, minister for agriculture Pandurang Phundkar said that he would introduce the new policy for agriculture in the next six to eight months. The average growth of income in the agriculture sector in Madhya Pradesh is 20 per cent, followed by Gujarat with 8.45 per cent, Andhra Pradesh (8.40 per cent), Chhattisgarh (7.8 per cent) and Karnataka (7.8 per cent). Maharashtra has recorded minus growth in the last three consecutive years.

Mr Phundkar said that the new policy would focus on promoting domestic or hybrid seeds. “We have several hybrid seeds that have given a huge yield in the past. But when BT seeds were introduced, especially BT cotton, the quality of soil reduced drastically,” he said, adding that farmers are again opting for hybrid seeds. Explaining further, he said that in a one-acre plot, a farmer could plant one lakh saplings of hybrid cotton seeds vis-a-vis 7,000 saplings of BT cotton.

Mr Phundkar also said that the policy would focus on farmers’ welfare and the effects of global warming, and promote the conventional drip irrigation techniques. Keeping in mind the changing climatic conditions and crop yields, the minister said it’s time we started changing the crop pattern in the state, as the traditional crop pattern was not giving a fair yield to farmers.