In order to meet the growing demand for quality seeds, the Agriculture Ministry has signed two memoranda of understanding (MoUs) with National Seeds Corporation Limited (NSC) and State Farms Corporation of India Ltd. (SFCI) for 2010-11.

The thrust areas in the MoU with NSC are quality assurance, customer satisfaction, redressal of farmers’ grievance, environmental upgradation and collaborative R&D activities for developing new varieties.

NSC will share the responsibility of sustainable development by financing creation of rain water harvesting structure in NSC’s seed growers’ areas, tree plantation and free distribution of solar lanterns.

According to the MoU, the corporation will work to achieve higher financial and physical targets in 2010-11 over the previous financial year. Gross sale of seeds has been fixed at Rs. 519 crores for 2010-11 against Rs. 277 crores for last year. In addition, the corporation has been given a target for production of 19 lakh quintals of certified seeds against 17.00 lakh quintals in 2009-10.

The MoU with SFCI sets higher targets for 2010-11 including production of 6.00 lakh quintals of certified seeds against 5.75 lakh quintals target of the previous year.

Another significance of this year’s MoU is the emphasis on higher production of oil seeds, pulses and non-cereals pegged at 65 percent of the total seed productivity.

Several new dimensions have been added that include thrust on research and development whereby new technology would be adopted in the mechanisation of farms; pilot testing Jojoba plantation and also planting of olive trees in the desert area.