TIRUCHY: Lending a helping hand in times of difficulty with procurement from the open market or agricultural extension centres, the Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) at Siruganur in Tiruchy has cultivated and supplied 39 tonnes of quality paddy and black gram seeds to farmers during calendar year 2024-25.
While the figure stood at 19.4 tonnes in 2023-24, the centre plans to increase the acreage of cultivation and enhance seed production this year. Recalling the remarks of R Umarani, director of the Seed Centre, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU, Coimbatore, Dr C Raja Babu, programme coordinator, KVK, stressed on the importance of choosing genuine and quality seeds to enhance crop yield by 20 to 25 per cent.
"Quality seed is the foundation for higher yields, better crop health, efficient use of resources and improved farmer profitability. It can result in a 20-25% increase in yield. Farmers should aim to double their income by engaging in quality seed production rather than conventional cultivation," Dr Babu said.
Using the quality seed varieties introduced by TNAU, KVK is raising paddy varieties such as ADT 39, CO (R) 50, CO 55, CO 57, CO 58, ADT 54, ADT 58 and ADT 1, along with black gram varieties such as VBN 10 and VBN 8 on 28 acres of land.
Accordingly, the Sugarcane Research Station (SRS), which functions under KVK, produced and sold 12,900 kg of paddy seeds during 2023-24 and 13,645 kg of seed varieties during 2024-25. In the case of black gram, KVK produced 6,511 kg during 2023-24, which increased to 25,372 kg during 2024-25, Dr Babu said.
The seeds are classified as breeder seeds, foundation seeds, certified seeds and truthfully labelled (TFL) seeds, and sold to farmers. Breeder seeds are being sold to farmers at Rs 77.80 per kg and TFL seeds at Rs 40 per kg. While mentioning plans to increase the acreage of cultivation to 30 acres against the current 28, Dr Babu added that a large quantity of VBN variety of black gram seed has been stocked for farmers’ use in the upcoming summer season.