Hybrid takeover

DALJIT SINGH usually harvests 10 tonnes of rice from his 1.5-hectare farmland. But in 2022, the yield was just 1.9 tonnes. Most of the crop was dwarfed due to a Fiji virus infection. "I had used hybrid seeds manufactured by German company Bayer.

- RAJU SAJWAN

This year, all the farmers in my village have decided not to use seeds manufactured by Bayer because they seem to catch infection easily," says Daljit.

Daljit is a farmer in Shahbad, a village in Ambala district of Haryana. Though the farmers of Shahbad did not use seeds by Bayer this year, they have not become averse to hybrid seeds altogether. "We have used hybrid varieties of a different brand because hybrid seeds give better yield," says Daljit.

Over the decades, popularity of hybrid seeds has been increasing among farmers in India. Hybrid varieties get ready for harvest quickly as compared to traditional varieties (these are handpicked by farmers from the field after harvest for use next year, and the process can be replicated for generations) or the open pollinated variety (OPV) seeds (these are mostly developed by agricultural universities and can be used for five to seven years). "The quicker harvest quality of hybrid seeds gives farmers a window to sow short-duration crops, such as potato, between two crop cycles," says Manjit Singh, a farmer from Mohri in Ambala district.

The increase in the share of private companies in India's seed market finds mention in the 25th report of the Standing Cor ittee on Agriculture, tabled in the Lok Sabha in 2021. It says that in India, hybrid seeds are mostly developed and sold by national and multinational private sector firms, and that the share of private sector in India's seed market has increased from 57.3 per cent in 2017-18 to 64.5 per cent in 2020-21. A 2019 report by Indian Council of Food and Agriculture says that the country's seed market reached a value of US $4.1 billion in 2018, registering a growth rate of 15.7 per cent in 2011-18, and is expected to grow at 13.6 per cent in 2019-24, reaching a value of US $9.1 billion by 2024.