Agriculture, a crucial livelihood source for 50% of India’s population, is vulnerable to climate change. This has further impacted the farmers’ income and raised the issue of food shortage in India. With India’s population expected to touch 1.5 bn by 2030, the demand for food will increase further. This, coupled with a clear shift in preferences towards nutritious food, makes it imperative to adopt a strategy of using hybrid seeds for sustainable agrarian results.

Hybrid seeds are crucial in addressing food shortage, wastage, climate concerns and deteriorating food quality. They are created by controlled cross-pollination between different varieties of the same plant to enhance the resulting plants’ characteristics, such as better yield, greater uniformity, pest resistance and disease resistance. This enhances farm productivity, thus increasing the profitability of farmers, which mainly benefits smallholders, who account for over 80% of all farmers in India. Appropriate policy reforms and subsidies are crucial in promoting smallholders’ use of hybrid seeds.

Consumers are becoming more health conscious which has led to a preference shift towards nutritious food. Thus, it becomes imperative to have good-quality seeds for sustainable agrarian results.

Leveraging agritech to boost hybrid seed production

The introduction of agritech has helped propel the growth of hybrid seeds. The leading seed breeders have been leveraging advanced digital technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning that provide real-time actionable insights to address issues related to commercial seeds’ development, production, and distribution. They have been integrating machine learning techniques with the science of seed germination to predict and improve the overall pod outcome.

Ramping up R&D expenditure for developing new hybrids

Acknowledging the growing demand for developing high-yielding new hybrid seeds, the Indian seed sector has ramped up its R&D expenditure. The industry is mainly focused on investing in R&D to develop hybrids of seeds. Besides, increased investment by the government and public, as well as private research institutes to enhance crop production, supply chain management, and quality assurance, will ultimately benefit the seed industry in India.

Collaborative approach between farmers and industry

Integrating hybrid seeds in farming isn’t smooth, often due to a lack of awareness at the grass-root level, inadequate access to quality seeds from trusted suppliers and fragmented land ownership in India. In this regard, enhancing industry-farmer partnerships to provide appropriate training, support and knowledge to the farmers can help increase the adoption of hybrid seeds.

In recent years, the Indian nutraceutical industry has started working closely with farmers to employ smart agriculture and optimised post-harvest processing techniques. This makes the nutraceutical industry stakeholders and agriculturalists take advantage of the rich tradition of Indian agriculture and ayurveda. The amalgamation of technology with ancient history and natural resources enables farmers to do GEO tagging, area mapping, crop management advisories, and more, thereby enhancing overall productivity.

Today, the Indian seed industry has become more ‘farmer-centric’, as is evident from its growing collaboration with farmers. This has helped the companies introduce improved seed varieties that are climate resilient, high yielding, and can withstand several biotic and abiotic pressures. Simultaneously, farmers realise that hybrid seeds, if combined with biotechnology and other crop improvement technologies, can substantially enhance farm productivity and, thus, profitability. This, coupled with the government’s policy reforms, and subsidies to promote hybrid seeds, will be the best path towards doubling farmers’ income in India.

It is evident that modern India is leaving behind the old adage in practice that farmers should have the source of seed, and they should choose what gets planted! The farmers themselves have realised that buying Hybrids is economically sounder, and the change process is significant for the betterment of Indian agriculture.

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Views expressed above are the author's own.

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