BHUBANESWAR: With cyclone Fani damaging certified paddy seeds stored in different godowns of Odisha State Seeds Corporation (OSSC) in coastal districts and restoration of ravaged seed processing units is taking time, the Corporation is running against time to meet the seed requirement of farmers for the ensuing kharif season.
Having the mandate to supply over five lakh tonnes of certified paddy seeds of different varieties to the farmers, the state-run corporation had pre-positioned around 3.5 lakh quintals of seeds before the cyclone.
“Nearly, 15,000 quintals of processed seeds worth `5 crore stored in two of the Corporation’s godowns in Puri district have been rendered substandard as the roof collapsed due to heavy cyclonic storm,” sources in OSSC said.
The Corporation has floated fresh tenders to procure seeds from registered seed growers and National Seeds Corporation Limited.
Though there is enough stock of unprocessed paddy, the cyclone delayed seed processing as many of the processing units could not be operationalised due to dislocation of power supply.
Even as these units are now running overtime, the Corporation is finding it hard to meet the demand from farmers, the sources added.
Around one lakh quintals of seeds were sold before the calamity hit the State. As the State seed portal, maintained by National Informatics Centre for farmers registration to get the direct benefit transfer (DBT) of seed subsidy, remained down for a considerable time due to power disruption, the seed off-take by farmers came down drastically.
The demand for seeds picked up after the situation improved but the Corporation was not in a position to meet the demand.
The objective of supplying quality seeds is to improve the seed replacement rate (SRR) for higher food grain production in the state. With less than 30 percent SRR, the State is way behind the national average while Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu have crossed 80 pc.