BHUBANESWAR: The Odisha State Seeds Corporation (OSSC) is going to be hit hard after withdrawal of the seed production and distribution incentive scheme by the Centre.The state public sector undertaking (PSU) which has been in the business of production of certified seeds and marketing it at reasonable price to the farmers through primary agriculture cooperative societies (PACS) has been earning around Rs 4 crore towards distribution subsidy from the Centre under Bringing Green Revolution to Eastern India (BGREI), a sub-scheme Rastriya Krishi Vikash Yojana, for promotion of high yield seeds of notified varieties of less than 10 years old.
In order to achieve this the company organises seed production programmes through seed growers at various places of the state under “Mo Bihan Yojana”, after which those are sold to the farmers keeping a margin to meet its operational and establishment costs. As the motto of the company to run it at no profit and no loss basis, the production and distribution subsidies were a major relief to the farmers and the corporation as well.
Under the Central scheme, which was in operation from 2010-11 till 2019-20, seed growing farmers were provided production subsidy at Rs 20 per kg and distribution subsidy at Rs 25 per kg to OSSC for timely supply of quality seeds to the farmers. On an average, the state government was getting production and distribution subsidy of around Rs 16 crore annually which was shared between the farmers and OSSC on 75:25 basis.
“With a sanctioned staff strength of 186, OSSC is being managed with a skeleton staff of 68. The annual staff salary expenditure of the corporation is about Rs 12 crore which is generated from sale of seeds. The distribution incentive was mostly utilised to meet administrative expenses like paying wages and salaries,” said one of the directors of the OSSC board.
After much of cajoling, the state government has approved the proposal of the seeds corporation to implement the seventh pay commission recommendations for the OSSC staff from January 2023. The government has also initiated the process for recruitment of 57 persons in the vacant posts.
The registered farmers are no more interested to continue the seeds production programme without incentive, which is going to affect the business of OSSC. “It will be well-nigh impossible for the corporation to meet the additional cost of salary after the implementation of the seventh pay commission and recruitment of new staff,” the sources said.