With the sowing season is around the corner, the state government has managed to procure around 8 lakh quintals of certified seeds through various production agencies including the UP Seeds and Terai Development Corporation, the National Seed Corporation, and the State Farm Corporation of India as against a distribution target of 11 lakh 32,000 quintals.

It may be mentioned that the state government provides farmers with around 11 per cent of their total seed requirement of 100 lakh quintals as part of its seed assistance programme, while the farmers cater to 89 per cent of their seed requirements through their own private stocks of seeds.

]Highly placed officials of the state's agriculture department admit that the adverse weather conditions which hit large parts of UP betweenOctober and December last year coupled with late sowing has affected production of certified seeds to a large extent. To compound matters, the recent floods in the state, the worst in several years, have also resulted in destruction of individual farmers' own private stocks of seeds creating a scarcity condition.

Officials admit that even the various agencies which supply seeds to the government have not been very successful in their attempts to muster up the adequate quantities of certified seeds to meet targets and the response to their tenders has been rather poor. The UP Seed and Terai Development Corporation was able to arrange only 28,000 quintals against the agriculture directrorate's target of meeting the demand of over one lakh quintals of certified seeds for the rabi crop through the corporation. Similarly, up agro too has fallen far short of the proposed target of 1.5 lakh quintals of seeds by nearly a lakh quintals. Furthermore, the state government's efforts to procure seeds from the FoodCorporation of India have also been an exercise in futility with the FCI informing them that it has only limited stocks to offer.

Despite this, however, the state agriculture department is not willing to press the panic button just yet. In an official communique to clarify the situation, the directorate has cartegorically stated that there is no cause for alarm as between the various seed supplying agencies and individual distributors, the state has adequate quantities of certified seeds especially wheat, the most important rabi crop. To part compensate farmers for the destruction of their private stocks in the recent floods, the state government has also announced that it will distribute 6 lakh 25,000 quintlas of certified wheat seeds free to those small and marginal farmers in the 39 districts delcared flood-affected by the state government who have suffered a loss of over 50 per cent to their standing kharif crops and stocks during the recent floods.

But the prophets of doom have already startedpredicting the possibility of an all time low foodgrain production in the state in the forthcoming rabi season on account of the paucity of seeds with farmers in the flood-affected areas who are reportedly running from pillar to post to procure certified seeds for the fast-approaching rabi sowing season. It is being apprehended that the authorities may be forced to utilise foodgrains stored in godowns as a susbstitute for seeds. ``If this happens, not will there be considerable dwindling of foodgrain buffers but will also result in production of inferior quality of foodgrains,'' cautioned an agriculture expert.