GRAIN SIZE: SEED TROUBLE

An increase in number of days with extreme temperatures or rain has caused a decline in quality and size of seeds across India

- SHAGUN AND VIVEK MISHRA

WHEN A group of 20 farmers in Andhra Pradesh's Alluri Sitharama Raju district ventured into production of seeds of finger millet (ragi) and little millet (samai) in 2019, it had no idea what the future had in store. For the next two years, unusual weather events ensured that the crops did not have grains good enough for use as seeds. "The years 2020 and 2021 saw excess rain in July and August. This did not allow the plants to take nutrition from the soil. The resultant grains were weak and the endosperm-part of a seed that stores food for the development of a plant and is crucial for germination-was absent when the seeds were crushed open for inspection," says M L Sanyasi Rao, programme manager of Watershed Support Services and Activities Network, a non-profit working with tribal farmers in the area. The farmers had estimated 20 tonnes of produce, but the harvest in November 2021 resulted in only 15 tonnes, with the grains unusable as seeds. The harvest was then sold as crop for 25 per kg, while its sale as seed would have fetched 35 per kg.

There is no difference in the cultivation mechanism for producing seeds or for growing crops. Vast majority of farmers in India set aside a part of their field for growing seeds that can be used the next season. But climate change has posed a threat to seeds, which are essential for food security of the country. Grains of wheat and rice, the two staples distributed under the government's public distribution system and crucial to food security, have also seen a shrinkage in recent years, say farmers.

"Usually, the share of light or weak grains is 5-7 per cent. But last year, over 20 per cent of my wheat grains were of poor quality. These cannot be used as seeds," says Vikas Choudhary, a farmer from Karnal district in Haryana. Choudhary works as a participatory farmer with the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) under Indian Council of Agricultural Research's (ICAR'S) seed production programme.